Schrödinger’s Cat

In Girl in the Glass, while discussing the possibility that Mary Elizabeth and Embrie might be more than sisters, he describes a thought experiment called Schrödinger's cat.

“An Austrian physicist, Schrödinger, proposed a thought experiment to point out the loopholes built into quantum mechanics. A cat placed in a box, with poison to be released by random chance, can be either dead or alive until the box is opened. It’s both alive and dead at the same time. There’s two versions of the same cat.”

Erwin Schrödinger conceived of this thought experiment to illustrate a paradox built into quantum mechanics. The premise: There’s a cat in a sealed box with a radioactive atom and a poison. If the atom decays, it releases poison, killing the cat. If it doesn't decay, the cat lives. Based on quantum mechanics, until the box is opened and the cat observed, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead.

This is based upon the idea of Quantum Superposition, which states that particles can exist in multiple states, at the same time, until measured.  

Cat lovers, don’t despair. Schrödinger's Cat is not meant to be a literal experiment. Rather, this is a thought experiment designed to explore the implications of quantum mechanics and the role of observation. No cats were hurt or inconvenienced in the making of this webpage.

Erwin Schrödinger

Illustrations of Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, with both cats existing simultaneously