This principle does not only relate to quantum physics, to be in two states at once or the act of observation to alter the outcome occurs all the time.
eg watching a kettle makes it take longer to boil
or
"does my ass look big in this ?" the observer answers "no" despite evidence to the contrary - the act of observation has redefined the target of that observation
@WithTimeComesStories I KNOW! Incredibly annoying weather that day. Sunny-cloudy-sunny-cloudy, I remember actually shouting at the sun at some point, ended up taping paper to the windows... so your distraction is nothing compared to how I suffered! XD I now use a room-divider as a shelter against the sun.
So Funny!! I found a cool item on eBay ...the actual Schrodinger's cat device...Cool Novelty ...Totally getting one...if they don't sell out. The item number is 150759100427
What about the idea that observation actually reduces the amount of energy, and that removed energy actually is the cause of the wave function collapse... that was my thought on it.
If the YouTube partnership doesn't pan out as a moneymaker, I think you could have a nice cottage industry simply saying the name Schrödinger for American audiences.
"waitwaitwait... she's going to do it again! Shhh!"
It was not an experiment. Schoredinger`s wife just found the unfed cat sleeping inside a box and came to him. "Look, it`s half-dead..." so he came with the lame excuse with quantum physics and the gedanken experiment. But we know the truth!
Great discussion -- thanks! Very funny and to the point. Lots of people will say it's a thought-experiment not a metaphor(which you mention at the start); it is something that might be done (at least under Copenhagen) because all you need is to link the fate of the cat with particular particle's decay; get that going (you can't), and you're off! (you aren't). Anyway, do you do requests? -- I worry that the 'rubber sheet' metaphor for spacetime in relativity is unenlightening as well....
To quote GLaDOS: Do you know that thought experiment with the cat in the box with the poison? Theory requires that the cat be both dead and alive until observed.
Well, I actually performed the experiment. Dozens of times. The bad news is that reality doesn’t exist. The good news is we have a new cat graveyard.
@sillysparrowness Good video, but bad clip. If you are unfamiliar with "What the Bleep Do We Know", I suggest you see the wiki page, and all will be clear. :)
I liked this video, it reminded me of a Sci-Fi book I just finished reading, and maybe @sillysparrowness or others would too: 'Quarantine', by Greg Egan.
If you want to get your head twisted by quantum mechanics and collapsing wavefunctions, this one is for you.
This is awesome, it's so great to see such a well done and simple presentation of something that can get way confusing - as I found out in trying to teach it myself in a class I developed called "Quantum Mechanics for Beginners", in which I promised to have no math... but I digress. :-P
I'm also not a physicist, but I have always been critical of the Copenhagen interpretation. Somehow I missed (or maybe forgot?) that Schrodinger really meant it to show up Copenhagen as the mess it is...
Aside from praising your style, precociousness and innovative analysis, I'm also very curious, how is it you came to learn so much about QM? Is it covered in the German educational program for literature/language majors, or did you just dig into in on your own? (I know there are a large number of "popular" (i.e. non-technical) books in English on QM, it never occurred to me there might be the same thing in German...)
Smart and well-read chicks are insanely hot. I followed your Tardis vid and now I'm addicted to your vids. Thank for posting something that I don't feel like I'm wasting my time watching!
According to New Scientist, Oskar Painter has demonstrated quantum jiggling in a solid macroscopic object. So I'm thinking if we follow his methodology and cool a cat to within half a degree of absolute zero, then shoot it with a laser, we may be able to observe it being both dead and alive at the same time without shutting the box. In fact we may not even need a box! I have an old bar fridge we could use....
@SchroedingersBat "Cool a cat to within half a degree of absolute zero..." Now there's a really practical experiment, why didn't someone think of that before? :P
As I write this, there are exactly 8.68434x10-100th-10th (power) parallel realities. The rate increases dramatically when menus in restaurants are expanded :)
Hold up, minor correction - a wave passing through a single slit still produces an interference pattern (one major maximum and a series of smaller peaks to either side).
Incidentally, I think what you're saying around 5:50 on is exactly what Schrödinger was driving at - the idea that human observation was necessary to collapse a wave function was actually mainstream physics, and indeed the standard way of describing things. Of course, many people always thought that couldn't be right...!
By the way, one need not open the box to determine the cat's dead/alive state. One need only listen; most cats, when trapped inside a box, will start incessantly meowing and trying to claw their way out.
The only thing I would disagree with is that quantum physics is 'absurd' or you can meaningfully perform a reductio ad absurdum on it.
In reality the different 'interpretations' of quantum mechanics are pretty much meaningless and certainly unverifiable. And there is simply no reason to think that, just because something is 'absurd' to us, it is not real. 'Absurd' in this context only really means that which is out of ordinary experience, and the subatomic world is such a place.
The title made me ready to be sceptical, but this is actually an exceptionally good explanation of the whole topic and shows you understand it very well indeed. To top it off, you linked to Sixty Symbols and finished with my favourite physics joke! Madam, I doff my cap.
Schrodinger's cat isn't a metaphor. It's a thought experiment that's intended to carry Copenhagen to an absurd level. It implicitly asks a subtle question about where the boundary is between the quantum and classical domains. Its all much better understood today. In practice, its impossible to make such a large superposition but totally possible in principle.
In reality, there is no need for "observation" as a physical process. Its just the observer getting entangled with the subject system.
@cloffff Well, I know, but I really wanted do make a video about Schrödinger's cat and so I figured I could discuss the implied metaphor: "dead and alive cat" for "being in two states at the same time". Which is a bad one. :)
@sillysparrowness But its neither a good nor a bad metaphor, because its not a metaphor. ;] If you actually set up such a situation – impossible in practice but possible in principle – then it would be both alive and dead. I dont understand how you can claim its a metaphor. The rules of QM imply that its literally true, and QM is the correct description of nature.
@cloffff I don't think "the rules" of QM tell us anything - the equations need to be interpreted. If you take the math literally, then there is no solid reality, just waveforms. The whole question of how we get from the math to what we (at least seem to) see as reality is a matter of interpretation. The same is true of any math, as you said yourself, "the rules imply" - but see, math doesn't imply, it's people who infer...
@dgthall I dont think you understood. The rules of QM don't imply anything different from exactly what we see, so there is no real "interpretational" step that is necessary. The question of interpretation used to be mainly about whether to take the formalism seriously or try to resuscitate classical physics, but Bell's theorem and many similar results show that the latter is pretty much impossible to do consistently. Logical inconsistency invalidates naive interpretations of QM, as do experiment
Of course, this does raise the question of whether your video is itself a metaphor for the metaphor of Schrödinger’s Cat. And, since it probably both is and isn’t a metaphor for the metaphor of Shroedenger’s cat, what better metaphor could there be for the metaphor of Shroedenger’s cat? Unless this metaphor isn’t helpful in explaining what a metaphor is, in which case, what worse metaphor could there be than this metaphor as a metaphor for the metaphor of Schrödinger’s Cat?
@sillysparrowness You blatantly DON'T understand. This thought experiment has survived in the minds of physicists for over 77 years for a reason. It effectively demonstrates the absurdity of the quantum world. The irony is that you recognise this absurdity and then critisize it for being absurd! Don't you realise how ridiculous that is? To critisize the thought experiment as being absurd for demonstrating the very absurdity that the thought experiment was intended to show!
@Qwillk Thanks, I Iike to help promote the understanding. Its a shame this vital bit is left out of so many explanations.
I think one of the reasons its not well known is the fact that you can never scientifically prove that you're a part of a quantum superposition, but its the conceptual puzzle piece that allows everything to make consistent sense. Its what the Schrodinger equation implies if you apply it to a system and a scientist rather than just the system under study.
LOL. No, cloffff, Schrödinger’s Cat is, ACTUALLY, a metaphor (to this observer, at any rate). You should go back and watch the video (or sillysparrowness’s video on metaphors).
I'm thinking the cat would care, bearing in mind it is alive AND dead and any living creature stuck in a box faced with it's own corpse is likely to be properly freaked out.
Cool! I'm a huge fan of finding the connections between subjects. But, I thought the double slit experiment involved light (photons) and not electrons?
I actually meant the clip of Dr. Quantum you name and link to. That clip is from the movie "What The Bleep Do We Know!? Down The Rabbit Hole" and though the Dr. Quantum parts are by far the most reasonable parts of that movie, they are not without blemish. The observer effect is already somewhat misrepresented in that clip in order to prepare for its following abuse to 'explain' conciousness... That's all: your movie is ok and not scarily cultish :), just the Dr. Quantum link is a bit dodgy...
Nice video. Only problem: using any part of "What the Bleep Do We Know..." as a reference to explain science is never a good idea... That movie doesn't have anything to do with science in any way whatsoever: it's just a pamflet from some scary american cult misrepresenting and abusing science in order to further their own agenda and spread their nonsensical ideas...
@hwieldr lol, I've never even heard about this movie before... I guess I'm a scary american cult misinterpreting and abusing science all by myself :D I'm kind of impressed you liked my video anyway, regardless of whatever reference to that movie I seem to have involuntarily made.
The more i watch these videos the more i like them. The theme of each video is completely different and you present it in a new way that north american youtube vloggers just cant, except maybe tobuscus he`s awesome
@WiVaBo Huh, well, see..... erm. Damn. Nice point! Though I expect DeWitt (the originator of Many Worlds) has an explanation... (looks around in wikipedia for a bit) Hrm, David Deutsch has this thing about the multiple universes interacting with each other... but that is really a bit weird. (Then again, anything Deutsch says is weird, and QM is weird, so who knows? :P)
how old are you exactly :O? you look under 30 but you're already teaching 3 different year :O im in my last year of high school and my math teacher seem to be at her 50's anyway i just want to tell you you're hot xDDDD
Great vid. Please excuse the subsequent geeking out: You mentioned how fundamental particles like electrons have wavefunctions and how these collapse, but constructs of multiple particles like a proton, or an atom can also be described by a wavefunction. In recent years we've also managed to get several atoms to be entangled in this manner. As far as we can tell it should be possible to entangle the number of atoms there are in a cat, and if so, we could perform this experiment if we so desired.
I can only think of one way to be dead and alive at the same time. Have you ever watched 'The Time traveler's Wife'? *SPOILER* In the end where he dies his past self goes years and years into the future where he is dead but he is there and talking to his daughter and his wife so he is also alive.
Ja, Quantenphysik. Bin vor Jahren drauf gestossen, wobei Schrödingers Katze noch relativ einfach ist (Schalterprizip - ein Schalter ist entweder an oder aus, nur in Superposition eben sowohl als auch - bis jemand nachsieht). Das interessantste für mich ist immer noch dieses Vieluniversen-Spiel, wo jeder Gedanke, jede Idee jedes Ereignis sein eigenes Universum bildet, oder sich irgendwo manifestiert. Dadurch kann meine Kunst z.B. ein reales Stück von unserem Universum werden - oder eines anderen.
Can you please tell me where you got Erwin's quote, the original I mean? Please I am writing an essay about how vocabulary shapes our knowledge and I'm using science to prove my idea.
Thanks very much. I've never fully understood these concepts until i watched this.
Your english is excellent, better than most native speakers, but since you have educated me allow me to return the favour (in a very small way) : the word "infamous" is pronounced "in-fer-muss". Don't ask me why : maybe to make clever foreigners feel small. The English like to think themselves the best, despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary.
I'm off now to watch the rest of your stuff. Chin chin !
@oliver53353 I have never heard of anybody pronounce infamous like that ever, as somebody who has heard just about every widespread English accent there is in the US, UK, and Oceanic region. Looking it up on the internet, I can also find no mention of it being pronounced this way, in either British or American English. Maybe your local dialect pronounces it like that, but it is not a language-wide thing.
I love hearing Germans say Schrödinger. People laugh at me when I pronounced it that way (i.e., properly), and then they say it "shroe-dinger" which annoys me :P
I don't know if Schrodinger ever did, but I watched a video on Discovery Channel where the scientists talked about putting the cat in the box and that box into a time machine. They explored the paradoxes involved with time travel and the cat being both dead and alive through time... it was really interesting in a 'what just happened' way.
I think putting your rooster in a time machine with a radioactive substance and poison is a recipe for disaster. You could destroy a galaxy with that sort of tomfoolery.
I'll go out on a limb here and say that isn't everything like schrodinger's cat? Everything we observe is first being seen by our eyes, processed in the brain and then understood, and although this all happens very quick-so quick that we don't even think of it-it's still in a very small amount of time delayed. Thus, everything we see that is alive and present may or may not be alive at that exact moment in time. Eh??
@Ayshafr There are grammar mistakes because I'm not a native speaker and I'm still learning. So it would actually help me if you could tell me the mistakes I made. :)
"I'm sorry for those who expected or wanted me to behave like a proper English teacher with a passion for languages and literature, I also know, that even people interested in science back out of quantum physics, because all the prettiness of facts we can be sure of is lost."
I'm pretty sure this was just a typo, but that was a run-on. There should be a period or something after "literature." Also, after "know" there probably shouldn't be a comma.
(Can I just point out that I personally hated maths and physics back at school. Today, I know that it was more due to the way, science gets taught at school than to the subject. So there's my excuse for putting this on you.)
After "way" there probably shouldn't be a comma.
I feel weird correcting a teacher. I feel bad about it for some reason. I don't mean to be disrespectful or anything, though I guess I'm overreacting. My friends always get annoyed when I start correcting everyone's grammar...
@Ayshafr I'm neither embarrassed to make mistakes nor do I feel disrespected. I want to learn. Feel free to correct me whenever you feel the need to. And thanks for the hint, I just edited the info. :)
For us, the audience, you are in a state of being both dead and alive (we cannot know) while we cannot observe you, but then you upload a new video and it's like we are allowed a short peek into the box.
@kraksch I don't know if you know this, but "doobly-doo" originated from Craig Benzene (a.k.a wheezywaiter). Hank and John Green (as well as numerous others) have copied Wheezy's expression.
@xipheonj Thank you, I know ;) Somebody already pointed that out to me. When I wrote that comment, I just recently had started watching the vlogbrothers and didn't know about Wheezy Waiter yet ;)
This is so good :D You should definitely make a video on time travel and the ton of theories about parallel worlds and the Grandfather paradox! :) Honestly you're awesome :)
I wish I had something intelligent to contribute, but I know nothing about physics. Your argument that he was being deliberately burlesque is very convincing. But that's not why I'm commenting.
That was good. Thumbs up on this video. I agree the wild-haired scientist got it wrong when he said that Schrodinger's Cat is "dead OR alive." It's supposed to be "dead AND alive at the same time." Get it right.
But seriously folks, I would tend to think that the the multiple universe theory is wrong and Schrodinger's cat is a multidimensional subatomic particle encroaching on our 4d (including time) universe, but I could be wrong. The debate rages on. It is quite interesting, isn't it?
Excellent video good job you should do a video on your opinion on String Theory not that its related to this video but I would just like to hear your perspective.
@storyb23 Well, I LIKE the many worlds theory, but quantum decoherence would be the one I picked as the most probable one. On the other hand, what do I know...!
Although i dont know "quantum physics", to try to challenge you i can say that. "Think of time in a big (huge) scale and then in quantum level. You'll see that in bigger scale you are "dead and alive" as well as schrödinger's cat. If you take it to smaller scale, an observer can not know you are whether "dead or alive" at a particular point of time. Although you are right "Geiger counter is an observer effect, too. And i have to admit i like the way you tell "geek joke" at the end :)
"The weirdness of incomprehensive science with a dash of animal cruelty" - nice line :D
MsSheeep 4 days ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Hahaha I LOVED the joke at the end!
elfifiness 1 week ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Just a quick comment on "How can you be dead and alive at the same time?" : Apparently, you're not a coffee drinker.
luuummooox 1 week ago 4
@luuummooox XD
sillysparrowness 1 week ago
This principle does not only relate to quantum physics, to be in two states at once or the act of observation to alter the outcome occurs all the time.
eg watching a kettle makes it take longer to boil
or
"does my ass look big in this ?" the observer answers "no" despite evidence to the contrary - the act of observation has redefined the target of that observation
Oldking3 1 week ago
Dear diary, today I fell in love.
KiribiKiribiMacaco 1 week ago
7:30... progressively brightening light on book shelf... sorry I distract easily.
WithTimeComesStories 1 week ago
@WithTimeComesStories I KNOW! Incredibly annoying weather that day. Sunny-cloudy-sunny-cloudy, I remember actually shouting at the sun at some point, ended up taping paper to the windows... so your distraction is nothing compared to how I suffered! XD I now use a room-divider as a shelter against the sun.
sillysparrowness 1 week ago
What a cute nerd! DFTBA :)
JamesBerg86 1 week ago
This has been flagged as spam show
So Funny!! I found a cool item on eBay ...the actual Schrodinger's cat device...Cool Novelty ...Totally getting one...if they don't sell out. The item number is 150759100427
for anyone else interested!!
TheSkinny404 1 week ago
at 1:47 it looks like the grey cat has killed the white cat and is walking away suspiciously
GingerandNuts 2 weeks ago
...Schrödinger's Cat walks into a bar... and doesn't. That did make me laugh.
It also earned me a disapproving look from one of my cats.
FallibleFella 2 weeks ago
What about the idea that observation actually reduces the amount of energy, and that removed energy actually is the cause of the wave function collapse... that was my thought on it.
Schutzenegl1 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
FRENCH THE LLAMA! you said dooblydoo DFTBA!!!!
FreelancerWolfy 2 weeks ago
If the YouTube partnership doesn't pan out as a moneymaker, I think you could have a nice cottage industry simply saying the name Schrödinger for American audiences.
"waitwaitwait... she's going to do it again! Shhh!"
"...Schrödinger..."
"OMG that's so cute!"
philosophiste 2 weeks ago 11
@philosophiste lol! You know that this is how his name is pronounced, right? Well, I'm glad you like it. :)
sillysparrowness 2 weeks ago 5
It was not an experiment. Schoredinger`s wife just found the unfed cat sleeping inside a box and came to him. "Look, it`s half-dead..." so he came with the lame excuse with quantum physics and the gedanken experiment. But we know the truth!
Lumprcamprdlik 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I'm glad i watched this video before watching the futurama episode that referenced it. It made it much funnier!!
charlemagnemanz 2 weeks ago
always wanted to know why the cat itself wasn't an observer
LauraSeabrook 2 weeks ago
O.o I think I went cross-eyed while watching this video...but you're pretty, so I'll let it pass--This time >_<
TazCamino 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I love your presentation, also your toy stuffed hermit crab in the background :)
tpulley 2 weeks ago
the cat is a zombie therfore alive and dead at the same time
galemygg 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Great discussion -- thanks! Very funny and to the point. Lots of people will say it's a thought-experiment not a metaphor(which you mention at the start); it is something that might be done (at least under Copenhagen) because all you need is to link the fate of the cat with particular particle's decay; get that going (you can't), and you're off! (you aren't). Anyway, do you do requests? -- I worry that the 'rubber sheet' metaphor for spacetime in relativity is unenlightening as well....
seanendapower 3 weeks ago
what's a "dooblydoo"?
VaeVictisAeternum 3 weeks ago
i just want to point out that i laughed at the incredibly bad joke at the end of the video :)
says something about my humor :(
dukansupamejsnygg 3 weeks ago
To quote GLaDOS: Do you know that thought experiment with the cat in the box with the poison? Theory requires that the cat be both dead and alive until observed.
Well, I actually performed the experiment. Dozens of times. The bad news is that reality doesn’t exist. The good news is we have a new cat graveyard.
pokemega32 3 weeks ago
What if the cat breaks open the poison?
mxkid912 3 weeks ago
Now I simultaneously understand and don't understand this, whereas I previously merely did not understand this. Thank you
Anachronoxian 3 weeks ago
Great video. I loved seeing a German girl comment on the ideas of an Austrian man, somehow it seems authoritative and right.
nudedelightfan 3 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
This explanation is exactly what I was looking for when I searched "schrodinger's cat". Thank you.
aSHTEBALA 3 weeks ago
AND funny.. the awesumness just doens't stop..
the joke at the end totally cracked me up.. thanks :)
HomoCognitus 3 weeks ago
Hot AND intelligent... YOU, woman, must be Schrödingers Girl.. I would LOVE to open this box ;)
HomoCognitus 3 weeks ago
I liked the joke at the end anyway...
mattzerosoulphire 4 weeks ago
Schrödinger's Cat explained very well in less than 2 minutes: /watch?v=IOYyCHGWJq4
ahadhd 4 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
one questions , I hope you did not eat the chicken?
chitskirits 4 weeks ago
@chitskirits I lol'd at one questions
aSHTEBALA 3 weeks ago
@sillysparrowness Good video, but bad clip. If you are unfamiliar with "What the Bleep Do We Know", I suggest you see the wiki page, and all will be clear. :)
mirex951 4 weeks ago
Funny, pretty and smart; what a girl.
I liked this video, it reminded me of a Sci-Fi book I just finished reading, and maybe @sillysparrowness or others would too: 'Quarantine', by Greg Egan.
If you want to get your head twisted by quantum mechanics and collapsing wavefunctions, this one is for you.
TheWalrusOfHate 4 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
OK... You have one the heart (and mind) of this 3rd year philosophy student! Thanks again.
jumptrooper 4 weeks ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
This is awesome, it's so great to see such a well done and simple presentation of something that can get way confusing - as I found out in trying to teach it myself in a class I developed called "Quantum Mechanics for Beginners", in which I promised to have no math... but I digress. :-P
I'm also not a physicist, but I have always been critical of the Copenhagen interpretation. Somehow I missed (or maybe forgot?) that Schrodinger really meant it to show up Copenhagen as the mess it is...
dgthall 1 month ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
Aside from praising your style, precociousness and innovative analysis, I'm also very curious, how is it you came to learn so much about QM? Is it covered in the German educational program for literature/language majors, or did you just dig into in on your own? (I know there are a large number of "popular" (i.e. non-technical) books in English on QM, it never occurred to me there might be the same thing in German...)
dgthall 1 month ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
Smart and well-read chicks are insanely hot. I followed your Tardis vid and now I'm addicted to your vids. Thank for posting something that I don't feel like I'm wasting my time watching!
FedralBI 1 month ago 5
According to New Scientist, Oskar Painter has demonstrated quantum jiggling in a solid macroscopic object. So I'm thinking if we follow his methodology and cool a cat to within half a degree of absolute zero, then shoot it with a laser, we may be able to observe it being both dead and alive at the same time without shutting the box. In fact we may not even need a box! I have an old bar fridge we could use....
SchroedingersBat 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@SchroedingersBat "Cool a cat to within half a degree of absolute zero..." Now there's a really practical experiment, why didn't someone think of that before? :P
dgthall 1 month ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
As I write this, there are exactly 8.68434x10-100th-10th (power) parallel realities. The rate increases dramatically when menus in restaurants are expanded :)
thrillphilkult 1 month ago
sillysparrowness is completely Brilliant! {people taking quantum physics metaphors too seriously, less so}. :)
Zaephyrs 1 month ago
Fantastic idea - using a videoblog to collapse your own wave function into a state where you have produced a video about Schrodinger's Cat.
thomasjnelson1 1 month ago 2
I luv u almost as much as any experiment involving cats, boxes and poison ;)
Tattooedmunky 1 month ago
LOL just had a nerd-gasm :)
edijolie 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I love you!
DSilsbury 1 month ago
Hold up, minor correction - a wave passing through a single slit still produces an interference pattern (one major maximum and a series of smaller peaks to either side).
Incidentally, I think what you're saying around 5:50 on is exactly what Schrödinger was driving at - the idea that human observation was necessary to collapse a wave function was actually mainstream physics, and indeed the standard way of describing things. Of course, many people always thought that couldn't be right...!
0olong 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
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0olong 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Your videos are just awesome and more with your smiling eyes,face..you're a very sweet person.
TheChrissyluv 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
It is possible to be in to states at the same time, before I have my coffee I am both awake and not awake.
BoyMixer 1 month ago 2
@BoyMixer Just a further macroscopic demonstration of the quantumness of reality... You'd think physicists would have caught on by now.
dgthall 1 month ago
1. Hermeneutics.
2. I had an awesome German teacher too, he was in a punch rock band. Why are German teacher's cool?
3. Hope you are prepared for your popularity explosion. :)
VLOXY 1 month ago
By the way, one need not open the box to determine the cat's dead/alive state. One need only listen; most cats, when trapped inside a box, will start incessantly meowing and trying to claw their way out.
MatthewGraybosch 1 month ago
I think I've actually got Schroedinger's cat as a pet. He's very much alive, but he won't stay out of boxes.
MatthewGraybosch 1 month ago
i could listen to you explain your interest in physics forever.
G33ban 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Comment removed
G33ban 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
The only thing I would disagree with is that quantum physics is 'absurd' or you can meaningfully perform a reductio ad absurdum on it.
In reality the different 'interpretations' of quantum mechanics are pretty much meaningless and certainly unverifiable. And there is simply no reason to think that, just because something is 'absurd' to us, it is not real. 'Absurd' in this context only really means that which is out of ordinary experience, and the subatomic world is such a place.
gorgolyt 1 month ago
Very entertaining, and your English is superb!
pmissegh 1 month ago
The title made me ready to be sceptical, but this is actually an exceptionally good explanation of the whole topic and shows you understand it very well indeed. To top it off, you linked to Sixty Symbols and finished with my favourite physics joke! Madam, I doff my cap.
Kitsua 1 month ago
Schrodinger's cat isn't a metaphor. It's a thought experiment that's intended to carry Copenhagen to an absurd level. It implicitly asks a subtle question about where the boundary is between the quantum and classical domains. Its all much better understood today. In practice, its impossible to make such a large superposition but totally possible in principle.
In reality, there is no need for "observation" as a physical process. Its just the observer getting entangled with the subject system.
cloffff 1 month ago 3
@cloffff Well, I know, but I really wanted do make a video about Schrödinger's cat and so I figured I could discuss the implied metaphor: "dead and alive cat" for "being in two states at the same time". Which is a bad one. :)
sillysparrowness 1 month ago 15
@sillysparrowness But its neither a good nor a bad metaphor, because its not a metaphor. ;] If you actually set up such a situation – impossible in practice but possible in principle – then it would be both alive and dead. I dont understand how you can claim its a metaphor. The rules of QM imply that its literally true, and QM is the correct description of nature.
cloffff 1 month ago
@cloffff I don't think "the rules" of QM tell us anything - the equations need to be interpreted. If you take the math literally, then there is no solid reality, just waveforms. The whole question of how we get from the math to what we (at least seem to) see as reality is a matter of interpretation. The same is true of any math, as you said yourself, "the rules imply" - but see, math doesn't imply, it's people who infer...
dgthall 1 month ago
@dgthall I dont think you understood. The rules of QM don't imply anything different from exactly what we see, so there is no real "interpretational" step that is necessary. The question of interpretation used to be mainly about whether to take the formalism seriously or try to resuscitate classical physics, but Bell's theorem and many similar results show that the latter is pretty much impossible to do consistently. Logical inconsistency invalidates naive interpretations of QM, as do experiment
cloffff 4 weeks ago
Of course, this does raise the question of whether your video is itself a metaphor for the metaphor of Schrödinger’s Cat. And, since it probably both is and isn’t a metaphor for the metaphor of Shroedenger’s cat, what better metaphor could there be for the metaphor of Shroedenger’s cat? Unless this metaphor isn’t helpful in explaining what a metaphor is, in which case, what worse metaphor could there be than this metaphor as a metaphor for the metaphor of Schrödinger’s Cat?
shuvalkin 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@shuvalkin Which just leads one to ask, who watches the YT vids about metaphors about those who watch YT vids...?
dgthall 1 month ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
@sillysparrowness You blatantly DON'T understand. This thought experiment has survived in the minds of physicists for over 77 years for a reason. It effectively demonstrates the absurdity of the quantum world. The irony is that you recognise this absurdity and then critisize it for being absurd! Don't you realise how ridiculous that is? To critisize the thought experiment as being absurd for demonstrating the very absurdity that the thought experiment was intended to show!
IdeasAboveStation 1 month ago
@IdeasAboveStation Excuse me, criticise*
IdeasAboveStation 1 month ago
@cloffff Finally. someone. / thank you /
Qwillk 1 month ago
@Qwillk Thanks, I Iike to help promote the understanding. Its a shame this vital bit is left out of so many explanations.
I think one of the reasons its not well known is the fact that you can never scientifically prove that you're a part of a quantum superposition, but its the conceptual puzzle piece that allows everything to make consistent sense. Its what the Schrodinger equation implies if you apply it to a system and a scientist rather than just the system under study.
cloffff 1 month ago
LOL. No, cloffff, Schrödinger’s Cat is, ACTUALLY, a metaphor (to this observer, at any rate). You should go back and watch the video (or sillysparrowness’s video on metaphors).
shuvalkin 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
You speak pretty good English for a non native speaker. I thought you were British from the tardis video.
hmjgriffon 1 month ago
The first time I ever even heard about Schrödinger's Cat was from watching The Big Bang Theory..
xoxowickedlovelyxoxo 1 month ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
I'm thinking the cat would care, bearing in mind it is alive AND dead and any living creature stuck in a box faced with it's own corpse is likely to be properly freaked out.
gknipe 1 month ago
Cool! I'm a huge fan of finding the connections between subjects. But, I thought the double slit experiment involved light (photons) and not electrons?
islenskr 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I actually meant the clip of Dr. Quantum you name and link to. That clip is from the movie "What The Bleep Do We Know!? Down The Rabbit Hole" and though the Dr. Quantum parts are by far the most reasonable parts of that movie, they are not without blemish. The observer effect is already somewhat misrepresented in that clip in order to prepare for its following abuse to 'explain' conciousness... That's all: your movie is ok and not scarily cultish :), just the Dr. Quantum link is a bit dodgy...
hwieldr 1 month ago
Nice video. Only problem: using any part of "What the Bleep Do We Know..." as a reference to explain science is never a good idea... That movie doesn't have anything to do with science in any way whatsoever: it's just a pamflet from some scary american cult misrepresenting and abusing science in order to further their own agenda and spread their nonsensical ideas...
hwieldr 1 month ago 3
@hwieldr lol, I've never even heard about this movie before... I guess I'm a scary american cult misinterpreting and abusing science all by myself :D I'm kind of impressed you liked my video anyway, regardless of whatever reference to that movie I seem to have involuntarily made.
sillysparrowness 1 month ago 12
@sillysparrowness the Dr. Quantum clip is from that movie. But I don't think that makes it a bad explaination. And I love your videos :D
latronqui 4 weeks ago
The more i watch these videos the more i like them. The theme of each video is completely different and you present it in a new way that north american youtube vloggers just cant, except maybe tobuscus he`s awesome
malevolentfrog15 1 month ago
What I never understood is how the many worlds theory can explain the wave pattern of unobserved particles in the double slit experiment. Anyone?
WiVaBo 1 month ago
@WiVaBo Huh, well, see..... erm. Damn. Nice point! Though I expect DeWitt (the originator of Many Worlds) has an explanation... (looks around in wikipedia for a bit) Hrm, David Deutsch has this thing about the multiple universes interacting with each other... but that is really a bit weird. (Then again, anything Deutsch says is weird, and QM is weird, so who knows? :P)
dgthall 1 month ago
It is what it is regardless of what we think it is is.
tommycattap 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
how old are you exactly :O? you look under 30 but you're already teaching 3 different year :O im in my last year of high school and my math teacher seem to be at her 50's anyway i just want to tell you you're hot xDDDD
TheStpd388 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Me trying to pronounce "Schrödinger" = you trying to pronounce "physicist". Thank you for an enjoyable several minutes :)
notchent 1 month ago
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notchent 1 month ago
Use the fox in the video for your metaphor.
KingAssmar 1 month ago
I finally hit like when the joke came at the end. Actually laughed out loud. :)
(That is not to say that I would not have hit like... I was simply too busy paying attention to what you were saying as it was so interesting)
RebbelReb 1 month ago
Haha loved the joke in the end !
manhattenwe 1 month ago
Lasik id $1000.00 dollars per eye !!!! Why do I need to know that ? Darn advertisements!!!
xcalibr33 1 month ago
My cat would claw at the box or eat it's tail.
SillySod75 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
nice!
AnomalyXIII 1 month ago
Will you marry me?
PooleyX 2 months ago
Great vid. Please excuse the subsequent geeking out: You mentioned how fundamental particles like electrons have wavefunctions and how these collapse, but constructs of multiple particles like a proton, or an atom can also be described by a wavefunction. In recent years we've also managed to get several atoms to be entangled in this manner. As far as we can tell it should be possible to entangle the number of atoms there are in a cat, and if so, we could perform this experiment if we so desired.
signifyingsomething 2 months ago
I can only think of one way to be dead and alive at the same time. Have you ever watched 'The Time traveler's Wife'? *SPOILER* In the end where he dies his past self goes years and years into the future where he is dead but he is there and talking to his daughter and his wife so he is also alive.
Cosmo0819 2 months ago
I SAW HARRY POTTER BOOKS ON YOUR BOOKSHELF. YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID. :p
tantorecords 2 months ago
I thought the joke about the cat was funny. Still laughing about it...
xwillow078x 2 months ago 3
Ja, Quantenphysik. Bin vor Jahren drauf gestossen, wobei Schrödingers Katze noch relativ einfach ist (Schalterprizip - ein Schalter ist entweder an oder aus, nur in Superposition eben sowohl als auch - bis jemand nachsieht). Das interessantste für mich ist immer noch dieses Vieluniversen-Spiel, wo jeder Gedanke, jede Idee jedes Ereignis sein eigenes Universum bildet, oder sich irgendwo manifestiert. Dadurch kann meine Kunst z.B. ein reales Stück von unserem Universum werden - oder eines anderen.
Startwister 2 months ago
Can you please tell me where you got Erwin's quote, the original I mean? Please I am writing an essay about how vocabulary shapes our knowledge and I'm using science to prove my idea.
MyNameIsntCoolEnough 2 months ago
@MyNameIsntCoolEnough I'm afraid I simply used wikipedia, the German entry "Schrödingers Katze" gives you the quote under "Originalworte".
sillysparrowness 2 months ago 2
Is Schrödinger's cat a useful metaphor?
Well, yes and no.
Gadspy 2 months ago 23
@Gadspy Bahahaha! :D
signifyingsomething 2 months ago
What are you? I hear a British accent, it turns into a French one, and then its sounds like a German accent? Geewiz pick a country.
stewart7494 2 months ago
don't worry, I laughed at your joke!
youngknavery 2 months ago
Thanks very much. I've never fully understood these concepts until i watched this.
Your english is excellent, better than most native speakers, but since you have educated me allow me to return the favour (in a very small way) : the word "infamous" is pronounced "in-fer-muss". Don't ask me why : maybe to make clever foreigners feel small. The English like to think themselves the best, despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary.
I'm off now to watch the rest of your stuff. Chin chin !
oliver53353 2 months ago
@oliver53353 I have never heard of anybody pronounce infamous like that ever, as somebody who has heard just about every widespread English accent there is in the US, UK, and Oceanic region. Looking it up on the internet, I can also find no mention of it being pronounced this way, in either British or American English. Maybe your local dialect pronounces it like that, but it is not a language-wide thing.
GestapoAnon 2 months ago
Possibly the coolest adult I have ever watched- having never had an interest in physics I know want to go and study it
TheAlexConspiracy 2 months ago
I love hearing Germans say Schrödinger. People laugh at me when I pronounced it that way (i.e., properly), and then they say it "shroe-dinger" which annoys me :P
mnemosyned 2 months ago
I actually laughed at the joke your silly self told at the end of the vid xD
YesItsMeNayeli 2 months ago
One of my cats is called Schrödinger :3
zed829x 2 months ago
If you (or me) think that quantum mechanics makes sense, than it becomes obvious we don't understand it!
bikermiker55 2 months ago
God I love the way you pronounce Schrödinger...
tregard 2 months ago
Loving the Harry potter series behind you at 4:17 :D
Elphie021 2 months ago
Have you read John Green and David Levithan's Will Grayson, Will Grayson? It's where I first heard of Schrödinger's cat and a pretty good book.
eretrece 2 months ago
@eretrece I love that book. I thopught MDC was really a band becuase NMH was real.
GONEmypurpleflapjack 2 months ago
i always thought the same thing... but without all the big words
mark4851 2 months ago
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HungriMunki 2 months ago
Your videos are just perfection!!! Have you considered making a second channel for little unplanned/unedited "spur of the moment" type vlogs?
jp3d2k 2 months ago
lol I love how your box was labeled 'time machine'
whostolemycheeze 2 months ago
you make my brain hurt...
meesebeneath 2 months ago
Excellent videos keep them coming!
abragdon1001 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
More people need to experience your videos.
t4lkingbird 2 months ago
I don't think Schrödinger ever said anything about putting chickens (or cats) in a time machine...
arlovm 2 months ago
@arlovm Oh damn. I totally fucked up then.
sillysparrowness 2 months ago 10
@arlovm
I don't know if Schrodinger ever did, but I watched a video on Discovery Channel where the scientists talked about putting the cat in the box and that box into a time machine. They explored the paradoxes involved with time travel and the cat being both dead and alive through time... it was really interesting in a 'what just happened' way.
SuperChalek 2 months ago
This was an amazing video, and you madam, are simply amazing.
There should be more teachers like you.
WhittleDragon 2 months ago 2
*Talking to the pet* Don't close the box? What are you, chicken?
In all seriousness, great analysis.
ryan50ryan 2 months ago 2
You're so awesome!
Paximeister 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
ok. where did u get that shirt and do u think its possible to get one in mens?
keyofawesomefan 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@keyofawesomefan It is, yes. And as I had anticipated this request, I prepared a little video description.
sillysparrowness 2 months ago 2
@sillysparrowness oh wow I'm so sorry! thanks a lot!!! :)
keyofawesomefan 2 months ago
You talk so 'clean' Its weird, but that's just the feeling I get listening to you. Also you remind me of my math 101 teacher xD
JustLikeFM 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I think putting your rooster in a time machine with a radioactive substance and poison is a recipe for disaster. You could destroy a galaxy with that sort of tomfoolery.
thegrammarpirate 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos 4
I've gone through all your videos now and I've done what I knew I was going to do since I watched the first one: I subscribed. :)
TheDaiDave 2 months ago in playlist Más vídeos de sillysparrowness 2
time machine
xela69x 2 months ago
I love how every time you say Schroedinger, your accent gets heavier for a few words.
TheCalmingTempest 2 months ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness 2
Thumbs up for your correct pronunciation of Schrödinger :-)
idnwiw 2 months ago
@idnwiw Oh, I just now realized that you are german, well, still thumbs up and hallo from a new subscriber.
idnwiw 2 months ago
I might just subscribe just because you say "doobly doo." I guess your interesting content and attractive personality are also a plus.
TheRectorscale 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I'll go out on a limb here and say that isn't everything like schrodinger's cat? Everything we observe is first being seen by our eyes, processed in the brain and then understood, and although this all happens very quick-so quick that we don't even think of it-it's still in a very small amount of time delayed. Thus, everything we see that is alive and present may or may not be alive at that exact moment in time. Eh??
mostlyTarafied 2 months ago
I love how you say "doobly doo." You're awesome. But why are there grammar mistakes in the description? That makes me sad. I LOVE YOUR CHICKEN.
Ayshafr 2 months ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness 3
@Ayshafr There are grammar mistakes because I'm not a native speaker and I'm still learning. So it would actually help me if you could tell me the mistakes I made. :)
sillysparrowness 2 months ago 10
Cool! You only made 3. So, if you don't mind:
"I'm sorry for those who expected or wanted me to behave like a proper English teacher with a passion for languages and literature, I also know, that even people interested in science back out of quantum physics, because all the prettiness of facts we can be sure of is lost."
I'm pretty sure this was just a typo, but that was a run-on. There should be a period or something after "literature." Also, after "know" there probably shouldn't be a comma.
Ayshafr 2 months ago
(Can I just point out that I personally hated maths and physics back at school. Today, I know that it was more due to the way, science gets taught at school than to the subject. So there's my excuse for putting this on you.)
After "way" there probably shouldn't be a comma.
I feel weird correcting a teacher. I feel bad about it for some reason. I don't mean to be disrespectful or anything, though I guess I'm overreacting. My friends always get annoyed when I start correcting everyone's grammar...
Ayshafr 2 months ago
@Ayshafr I'm neither embarrassed to make mistakes nor do I feel disrespected. I want to learn. Feel free to correct me whenever you feel the need to. And thanks for the hint, I just edited the info. :)
sillysparrowness 2 months ago 10
oh no. oh no! you're an english teacher! why the comma splice?!? WHY?!?!
leap4joytx 2 months ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
Brilliant video!! :)
xxxxwrenxxxx 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Schroedinger = trolling physicists since 1935.
HaploidCell 2 months ago 61
YOU are like Schroedinger's Cat !!!!
For us, the audience, you are in a state of being both dead and alive (we cannot know) while we cannot observe you, but then you upload a new video and it's like we are allowed a short peek into the box.
HaploidCell 2 months ago 3
you're videos are so cool :D i found you today. so glad i did :)
cinnamonsecrets 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Awhh, you said doobly-doo! Finally a german nerdfighter :D
kraksch 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos 57
@kraksch I don't know if you know this, but "doobly-doo" originated from Craig Benzene (a.k.a wheezywaiter). Hank and John Green (as well as numerous others) have copied Wheezy's expression.
TheRectorscale 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@TheRectorscale Oh sorry, I didn't know that. Thanks ;)
kraksch 2 months ago
@kraksch Not necessarily related. "doobly-doo" was originally used by Wheezy Waiter.
xipheonj 1 month ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
@xipheonj Thank you, I know ;) Somebody already pointed that out to me. When I wrote that comment, I just recently had started watching the vlogbrothers and didn't know about Wheezy Waiter yet ;)
kraksch 1 month ago
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Jeshikun 2 months ago in playlist More videos from sillysparrowness
This is so good :D You should definitely make a video on time travel and the ton of theories about parallel worlds and the Grandfather paradox! :) Honestly you're awesome :)
TheseMusicalLyrics 2 months ago
I wish I had something intelligent to contribute, but I know nothing about physics. Your argument that he was being deliberately burlesque is very convincing. But that's not why I'm commenting.
I just wanted to say: your chicken is adorable.
sabresister 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
That was good. Thumbs up on this video. I agree the wild-haired scientist got it wrong when he said that Schrodinger's Cat is "dead OR alive." It's supposed to be "dead AND alive at the same time." Get it right.
But seriously folks, I would tend to think that the the multiple universe theory is wrong and Schrodinger's cat is a multidimensional subatomic particle encroaching on our 4d (including time) universe, but I could be wrong. The debate rages on. It is quite interesting, isn't it?
squareatheist 2 months ago
I want your t-shirt - pure epic XD
ApplesAndDaisies 2 months ago
Excellent video good job you should do a video on your opinion on String Theory not that its related to this video but I would just like to hear your perspective.
BanishhHD 2 months ago
I like the "Quantum decoherence" theory
storyb23 3 months ago
@storyb23 Well, I LIKE the many worlds theory, but quantum decoherence would be the one I picked as the most probable one. On the other hand, what do I know...!
sillysparrowness 2 months ago
Although i dont know "quantum physics", to try to challenge you i can say that. "Think of time in a big (huge) scale and then in quantum level. You'll see that in bigger scale you are "dead and alive" as well as schrödinger's cat. If you take it to smaller scale, an observer can not know you are whether "dead or alive" at a particular point of time. Although you are right "Geiger counter is an observer effect, too. And i have to admit i like the way you tell "geek joke" at the end :)
ertansaygi 3 months ago