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From: grimmnl
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  • So Shrodinger's cat walks into a bar...

    ...

    ... and doesn't

  • Haha sooo funny!! I actually picked up a Schrodinger's Cat device on eBay ...hilarious...search item number 150759100427 . I Love it!!!

  • Upp.... The Cat is Alive.

  • No one understands the Schrodinger experiment. We wouldn't even know of its existence if that bastard hadn't accurately predicted that cats would dominate all conversation in the future. That, my friends, is the REAL scientific finding here.

  • Great clip from TBBT! I just found a site online - ThinkGeek - where they sell a cool Schroedinger's cat t-shirt. I bought 2 - and I don't work for ThinkGeek. I've always been interested in physics, but couldn't handle the math. But now you can learn many of the concepts from videos like yours. Thanks for this! I look forward to watching your other videos!

  • "Annoying little animal YEEP YEEP YEEP-SHELDON !"

  • The times I've seen this metaphor on BBT, and I've read it before, I think of a line from one of my fave movies Excalibur, between Arthur and Merlin:

    Merlin: Looking at the cake is like looking at the future, until you've tasted it what do you really know? And then, of course, it's too late.

    [Arthur takes a bite]

    Merlin: Too late.

  • My god... there's a girl who won't go out with me because she's unsure of what's gonna happen. I'm going to explain quantum physics to her...! this will be no easy feat...

  • His cat brought me here

  • I dont care what brought you here.

  • John Green brought ME here... :)

  • you forgot the part where sheldons tells leonard about the cat

  • I brought myself here

  • Penny isn't wearing shoes!!!

    

  • @mjhasdied1 she's wearing flip flops!

  • it's still schrÖdingers cat ;D

  • @BigManator Yes but in English there are no ä, ö, ü or ß. :-)

  • @psmarteurope2011

    yes, but it's still a name and you could have used google to copy this letter ;)

  • anyone notice penny didn't have any shoes on when she left the apartment with lenerd at the end

  • @flashback414 shes wearing flip flops :)

  • Schrodinger invented this paradox as a justification for killing cats. I know that from a reliable and serious source.

  • this is wrong. something can not be alive AND dead at the same time. one must keep in mind both possibilities that, until one of them is proven, you can not have both.

  • @KILLERThreeSixNine Which is exactly the point. It COULD be thought of as both alive or dead. ("And" meaning that someone could think it's alive but someone else could think it's dead) This isn't wrong. :)

  • schrodinger was austrian ftw

  • @beraban1892 so was Hitler, BOOM!

  • typing "big bang theory" in youtube search brought me here....

  • That makes PERFECT SENSE...granted I'm not a physicist--could never handle the math--but that DOES make great logical sense.

    And as a Poly Sci, English, and Philosophy person, I LOVE logic. :)

  • the cats alive=pu**y

  • My failed experiment brought me here>=(

  • the point of schrodingers cat is to show (in one schrodingers opinion) the ludicrousness of his discoveries. Electrons can exist in a state of superposition, where they are actually in many states at once. Only interaction or 'observation' of the electron forces it into a single state.

  • I always though Schrodinger proposed the experiment to show why quantum mechanics can't be applied in a macroscopic plane.

  • It's quantum mechanics not quantum physics 

  • Schodingers Cat experiment is stupid!

    A cat can't either be alive and dead.

    Either the poison comes out and kills the cat, or not! WTF

  • @9snaker It's a paradox.

  • @9snaker yes but you don't know that untill you open the box! And it 's "either alive OR dead", not alive AND dead. Haven't you be paying attention?

  • @9snaker the point isn't that the cat can be physically alive and dead (impossible), the point of the experiment is that we can THINK that the cat can be alive OR dead but we won't KNOW until we open the box and OBSERVE the cat. :)

  • @voodoomanboy Nope, the cat is thought of as both alive AND dead. Schodingers cat is not a real paradox, it's a thought experiment designed to illustrate the consequences of the non-determinism assumed in (the Copenhagen interpretation of) quantum physics. While it's counter-intuitive because it doesn't follow one of the basic principles of logic (¬(p∧¬p)), it has proven to be both viable and useful when dealing with quantum mechanics.

  • She ruined the experiment. She told him the cat was alive.

  • This is funny to me, because my cat's name is Schrodinger.

    -J

  • The Internet brought me here.

  • Yes. Himym

  • "How I met your mother"

    Season Final Next......

  • It's Billy from Charmed!

  • Erwin Schrodingers brought me here.

  • that poor cat :(

  • 0:42 .. as if im looking in the mirror..

  • What Sheldon is roughly saying to them is that it's their choice.

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  • For anyone wondering, Schrödinger wasn't seriously considering the cat being both alive and dead. The cat in the box was just a metaphor to demonstrate the bizarreness of quantum mechanics through a reductio ad absurdum. The physics behind the idea (which involves quantum states of matter) is solid... however, like much of quantum mechanics, it seems ridiculous because it contrasts greatly with our usual experience of how the world works.

  • @MolekIX

    americans are dumb

  • @DrTheKay I applaud you for that wonderful, insightful, and brilliant comment that shows how your view on Americans isn't judgmental or following any preconceived stereotypes at all. *Slow, sarcastic clap*

  • I'm in a psych class right now and we're talking about Operant conditioning... and Thorndike's cat is being brought up. And because of this silly episode every time we talk about the theory of Thorndike's Cat I think of this episode. XD Which actually isn't good since... the theories don't coincide together at all. lol

  • I like the metaphor

  • This theory is extremely hyporcritical and therefore retarded. Im athiest and therefore scientifitc like most athiests, and the whole retarded notion of 'the cat is both dead and alive' is the same as saying 'god exists even though ive never him' which scientists critique....its no fucking different

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  • God I wanna fuck penny

  • Fact: Schrodinger created this paradox as a justification for killing cats.

  • I wouldnt say that the theory has all that much to do with physics, its more of a philosophical idea

  • @porque27 oh no it's definitely physics. sheldon's explanation is just a super simplified version (that still isn't that simplified)

  • It bothers me that they pronounce Schrödinger as Schrouwdinger.

  • @c1rdan In German, the "O" with two little dots is pronounced with a "U" sound. Just like the weird "B" looking thing is basically an extended "S" sound.

  • What episode/season?

  • To be honest the Schrodinger's cat thing doesn't make much sense. I don't get the point of it either.

  • @twilightwindwaker basically: since nobody can see the cat, they cant tell whether its alive or not.

  • sheldon can be a cupid and a relationship breaker at the same time. :)

  • hahah awsome

  • Portal 2 Brought me here

  • @Fcot99

    Schrodingers Catch?:P

  • @Fcot99 How?

  • @Fcot99 my science homework brought me here

  • @Fcot99 How?! o_O

  • @Fcot99 how ?

  • @freddyblue50 an achievement is called schrodingers cat

  • @Fcot99 oh

  • what a shitty programme

  • Everyone who's not an idiot knows about schrodingers cat... i mean i've heard atleast a dozen jokes about it. "schrodingers cat walk into a bar and doesn't".

  • god I learned about this is quantum physics last week... hes got it but missing the more important message behind it.

  • @Morelloo1 Of course he's missing the point its a sitcom.

  • @MrPizzapoika sorry dude no need to get all mad.

  • @Morelloo1 i wasn't mad. Im just pointing out the fact that comedies don't make any sense and it doesn't matter because they're comedies. Jokes.

  • @black8belt And that time he tried to improve Penny's behaviour using chocolate as a reward.

  • which episode is this from? : )

  • @black8belt on the other hand, it might be difficult to convince him though

  • @black8belt Easy, just put Sheldon on a desert island... :p

  • @black8belt o.0 ...well, at least he survived.

    Also, the building his own CT scanner thing kind of reminds me of this: xkcd.com/505/

  • @black8belt lol, I wonder what he built it out of. Lego pieces?

  • @black8belt Yeah. And also, it's puzzling why a smart guy like Sheldon can't seem to figure out social rules and relationships. I mean, he figured out everything else.

  • annoying little animal yipyipyipyipyipXD

  • @black8belt Yeah, true....Well, I guess if we analyse TV shows enough there's always stuff that don't make sense. Whatever her reasons though, I'm just happy that Penny chose to ask clueless ol' Sheldon for advice. I imagine her other friends would've spouted some "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" crap. :p

  • @black8belt ...Maybe she doesn't want her friends to know that she is dating Leonard. Dun-dun-DUNN.

  • @black8belt I think in practice if you have to consider the interacting particles as a single system, so the Heisenberg uncertainty will apply to the system as a whole - i.e., measurement of p1 will affect x2 and so forth.

    I don't think Penny knew that Sheldon's never been on a date at that point. But then again it's not a difficult deduction to make for anyone who actually knows him...

  • @black8belt Ah, OK. Heisenberg says you can't know both the position (x) and the momentum (p) of a particle with certainty. EPR says you can, by the following method:

    Take two interacting particles, separate them, and then measure the momentum of one (p1) and the position of the other (x2). Due to their previous interaction, you can calculate p2 from p1 and x1 from x2, thus violating the uncertainty principle.

    I should also mention that my choice of thought experiment was completely arbitrary.

  • @black8belt ...Next up: Sheldon explains Penny and Leonard's breakup using the EPR paradox.

  • @black8belt Suddenly Schrödinger's cat doesn't look so bad now, does it? :p

  • @black8belt Hahaha, yeah, I wonder about that too - probably a mixture of desperation and the fact that Sheldon knows Leonard really well. Imagine if she had asked Howard or Raj instead...

  • @black8belt Your interpretation (which is probably closer to the philosophy of the Copenhagen interpretation than mine) makes total sense. Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but the awkward "we need to talk" moment when Leonard went to pick up Penny seemed to suggest that Sheldon had used his analogy as a way of discouraging Penny from pursuing the relationship. Or at least as a warning of what she is potentially getting into. :)

  • The reference to Schrodinger's cat is in this episode, The Tangerine Factor aired May 19, 2008. The same night, 19th, a Bones episode aired with its own allusion to Schrodinger's cat!! While watching the Bones episode I was curious to see if one show may have copied it off the other (not knowing how popular a reference in popular culture it was) and found out they aired at the same time! ... Fun fact haha

  • holy sh*t, how I met your mother is on next?

  • Its alive, ITS ALIVE!

  • @Drizzt2549909 We are not assuming the cat is alive, we are saying that it's both alive and dead until we open the box (exactly the point of absurdity Schrodinger was attacking). And starvation etc. are accounted for by his inclusion of an hour-long time limit, within which all his arguments are addressed.

  • Yah smart guys can get pretty girls too! Did I spell "pretty" right?

  • @Leo90 ,

    But smart girls, e.g. ones who can explain the Schrodinger Cat gedanken experiment with equations, scare off guys. Yes, even many smart guys. Because a lot of smart guys don't want to be intellectually challenged by a woman. (Yes, even an attractive woman.)

  • @citrine615 Smart girls might scare off some guys, but only the kind of guys the smart girls wouldn't be happy with anyway. I don't think I could have a serious relationship with a woman I didn't consider "smart". Truth is, smart girls are sexy.

  • I love smart humor. Shrodinger's cat FTW.

  • It was Acid not poison.

  • thats not the right explanation for schrodingers cat. the vile of poison breaks open when the radiation given of by a substance is detected by a geiger counter. not at a random time.

  • @JSasRays Which is at "random" time, kind of, because you don't know if it's already been released.

  • @JSasRays Which is at a random time, since you don't know when it's going to open or if it's going to open at all.

  • Did anyone else notice that she left the apartment without shoes on?

  • @sabbagha18 No because she did have shoes on.

  • @sabbagha18 Yeah, lmao, wow! XD

  • @sabbagha18 good eye

  • @sabbagha18

    Nah, she has tan sandals on.

    You can hear her scuff her feet as she closes the door after letting Leonard in.

  • @sabbagha18 it's more realistic ^^

  • @sabbagha18 leonard is short

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  • @sabbagha18 That must have been some cat!!

  • @sabbagha18 flip flops

  • lol! I cant believe it, im that guy..

  • Awesome lol... never thought of Schrodinger's cat being used in this way before haha... I want to try this thing out next time, just for shits and giggles... see what happens :P

  • Schrodinger's cat brought me a second date today! Thank you Sheldon Cooper! Goodbye Cosmo!

  • Good for Leonard, opening that box.

  • Was Penny wearing shoes in this episode? It looks like she wasn't :)

  • I think Sheldon's point was you can't know unless you open the box and take a chance.

    At any one instance, there is no answer. But over time, you will defiantly get the wrong answer

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  • I always think that the show was meant for average intelligence.

    A lot of the science jokes are inconsistent, anyway. In the pilot episode, Leonard made reference to work that he'd done which contributed to string theory. Even though he's in experimental physicist - not a theoretical one.

    If anything, Leonard and Sheldon shouldn't be getting along as well as they do. All the experimental physicists I know don't take string theory seriously. They treat it like some crazy religion.

  • @Xearf  I *also* think....

  • I'm pretty sure he forgot the nuclear particle with a 50% chance of decay. Stupid writers!

  • haha, anyone else here read will grayson, will grayson?

  • Question: What was Sheldon's real point when he told Penny?

  • @soundlessMion

    That she should date Leonard and find out whether the cat (their relationship) would be alive or dead. She wont know for sure whether or not the relationship would be worthwhile if she doesnt date him.

  • @Vaelez But when she asked him what he meant, she said that.

    ...oh wait. Oh, I interpreted what she said as "I should go out with Leonard to give it a shot" O_o

  • @Vaelez But the only GUARANTEED *possibility* of it working out for sure exists only if she doesn't date him. Otherwise, she'll have to risk uncertainty and possible failure in order for the probability wave to potentially collapse the desired result.

    If the cat turns out dead, then the possibility of it being alive stops existing.

  • @Xearf collapse *to* the desired result

  • @soundlessMion He's asking Penny to give Leonard an easy escape route. Schrödinger's cat postulates that you won't know which of the eigenstates will prevail UNLESS you open the box. Sheldon likely thinks the outcome of opening the box will be a ruined relationship/friendship (dude has no faith in Leonard), so in raising this analogy he is asking Penny and Leonard to preserve the comforting possibility of a successful romance in existence by keeping it in the box, unopened - i.e., don't date.

  • This explains why he said, "No no no no no..." when Penny misinterpreted his advice as encouragement to date Leonard, which is actually the *opposite* of what he meant.

  • @thequantumcollapse But it true, dating each other almost ruined their friendship all together, and he knew that all along. Even though he never been on date or a relationship till the point of this episode, he knew love is just a mindless activity the brain fool the person in believing it more then sex, but in reality it just about procreation. That why Sheldon always says sex is for procreation reasons, not pleasure which has pull humanity back a few steps in science and technologyadvancement

  • @Jmerino7 C'mon now, you can't honestly buy into Sheldon's view of love and sex! Even though that, and the way he overcomplicates everything, is part of his charm. :)

    And fwiw, I was totally rooting for Leonard and Penny to stay together.

  • @thequantumcollapse The problem with that is, even if you assume that the cat may still be alive so long as you don't open the box to find out. If you leave the damn cat in the box indefinitely, eventually you have to assume that even if the poison didn't go off, the thing will have starved to death anyway! So just open the fucking box, take a chance, and see if you can save the kitty! Unless you can already smell the corpse...then it is safe to leave it closed.

  • @thequantumcollapse Excellent.

  • @thequantumcollapse why are you explaining the joke tho? Dont take it the wrong way but are there ppl really dont get that? What is happening to our education for crying out loud?

  • @epjb226 But that's the beauty of Schrödinger's cat: that there are so many interpretations of it depending on the school of QM you take to approach the problem.

  • @thequantumcollapse actually, he pointing out, that its unwise to make predetermined dessition on something you dont know. as in. you shoulndt expect the worst, before youve tried it, nor the best.

  • @ChickenPludder Nope, that was what Penny thought at first when she asked, "So you are saying I should go out with Leonard...?", and Sheldon said no.

    Schrödinger was basically mocking the idea of the cat being both alive and dead; I imagine Sheldon felt the same way about a possible romance between Leonard and Penny at the time. In any case, he's too much of a realist to seem like he would advocate feel-goody type "you never know until you try" philosophies.

  • @ChickenPludder Actually he was saying you shouldn't open the box at all.

  • @zwithgol well, he is pretty much of a safety whore

  • @thequantumcollapse woah you are smart

  • How can you mention Schrödinger without mentioning AUSTRIA.

    (i am not patriotic, i just want there to be a mention of the physicists home country, the fact i am from there, and am a physics geek has nothing to do with that. )

  • YOU GO LENORD!!!

  • @WiccanHighPriest0

    I guess reading comprehension isn't your strong point. Either that or you haven't quite got the knack for expressing yourself with words.

  • @WiccanHighPriest0

    You don't spend five years studying this at university and "not getting it." Just because I believe this show is unfunny and insulting to real intellectuals, you can't simply say "oh you just don't get it." I get it, I just don't want it.

  • I thought it was a sealed bit of a radioactive substance?

  • @soundlessMion Yes, that is just superfluous though. The same aspect applies, whether or not the Geiger counter will go off and break the glass as the radioactive substance decays. I believe that there is something about it is so small it could decay in 10minutes or a couple hours, and that relates to the Geiger counter going off and breaking the vial.

  • Forgive me for saying this but could someone actually explain to me, if they know, what sheldons point was because i thought what Penny thought Sheldon meant was infact what he was saying?

  • @Raguman1427 She can't know whether or not it's a good idea until she goes for it.

  • @WiccanHighPriest0

    Seems in order to "get it" I have to say something along the lines of "good one, totally had me." Sadly, your logic is skewed.

  • @WiccanHighPriest0

    Yes, witty.

  • @WiccanHighPriest0

    Well your intellectual integrity disappeared fast.

  • Sheldon is a romantic genious.

  • @WiccanHighPriest0

    Erm no thank you.

  • @WiccanHighPriest0

    Not sure why it says that, I distinctly remember typing "only idiots who wouldn't understand Quantum physics would find that funny." And seeing how I didn't write the full sentence out, I'm not sure how you justify your apparent claim that I'm not bright. Accidents happen to everyone, claiming otherwise would be idiotic.

  • I know plenty about quantum mechanics and Schrödinger's cat, and I still think this is corny as fuck, i mean its just not funny. The humor is Disney channel-esqe