☼ Find Me, Fix Me

Except it's a neverending game, where you don't die until after many shots...

Question is when the shield will shatter; each shot weakens the defense.

Calculus...I hate studying for math finals. I've never had to take one except for freshman year...

Gov...eh. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Looked at information about the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, quantum suicide, and quiantum immortality. And a thought experiment by this guy named Erwin Schrödinger called "Schrödinger's Cat."

It's a bit confusing, but I think I understand some of it.

If you're ever interested, let me know lol. I can either tell you about it or write a blog post about it.

Actually...I'll explain it here.

First of all, a thought experiment, sometimes called by the German name gedankenexperiment, is a proposal for an experiment that would test or illuminate a theory or hypothesis. 

Given the structure of the proposed experiment, it may or may not be possible to actually perform the experiment and, in the case that it is possible for the experiment to be performed, there may be no intention of any kind to actually perform the experiment in question. The common goal of a thought experiment is to explore the potential consequences of the principle in question.

Schrödinger's Cat is a thought experiment that illustrates quantum indeterminacy, which is the apparent necessary incompleteness in the definition of a physical system (that has become one of the standard characteristics of the standard definition of quantum physics). Quantum indeterminacy is basically the probability distribution of a set of outcomes of measurements of an observable. A system observable is a property of the system state that can be determined by some sequence of physical operations.

Schrödinger's Cat is often described as a paradox, and illustrates what Schrödinger thought was a problem in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. Although there is no definitive statement of the Copenhagen interpretation, it basically says:

1) A system is described that a given system is completely described by a wave function ψ, which represents an observer's knowledge of the system.
2) The description of nature is essentially probabilistic. The probability of an event is related to the square of the amplitude of the wave function related to it. (The Born Rule)
3) Heisenberg's uncertainty principle states the fact that it is not possible to know the values of all of the properties of the system at the same time. Those properties that are not known with precision must be described by probabilities.
4) Complementarity principle: matter exhibits a wave-particle duality. An experiment can show the particle-like properties of matter, or wave-like properties, but not both at the same time.
5) Measuring devices are essentially classical devices, and measure classical properties such as position and momentum. (Classical here means "regular" physics)
6) The correspondence principle of Bohr and Heisenberg: the quantum mechanical description of large systems should closely approximate the classical description.

The Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment consists of a cat, along with a flask containing poison (hydrocyanic acid), being placed inside a sealed box (shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence). An internal Geiger counter, which detects ionizing radiation, is placed inside. Inside is placed so small an amount of radioactive substance, so that through the course of one hour, one atom may decay, or perhaps none may undergo decay. If an atom has decayed, the counter tube discharges and releases a hammer that shatters the flask of hydrocyanic acid. After an hour, one could say that the cat lives if no atom has decayed.

According to Schrödinger, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when we look in the box, we see the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead. In the course of developing this experiment, Schrödinger coined the term "Verschränkung," which literally means "entanglement."

When opening the box, the observer becomes entangled with the cat, so "observer states" corresponding to the cat's being alive and dead are formed; each observer state is entangled or linked with the cat so that the "observation of the cat's state" and the "cat's state" correspond with each other. Quantum decoherence, mentioned earlier in the description of the setup of the thought experiment, ensures that the different outcomes have no interaction with the other. The same mechanism of quantum decoherence is also important for the interpretation in terms of consistent histories. Only the "dead cat" or "alive cat" can be a part of a consistent history in this interpretation.

It's kind of like Russian roulette. The cat's life and death depends on whether or not an atom undergoes decay. Although discussion of this thought experiment talks about two possible states (cat alive and cat dead), in reality, there would be a huge number of possible states, since the temperature and degree and state of decomposition of the cat would depend on exactly when and how (as well as if) the mechanism was triggered, as well as the state of the cat prior to death.

I doubt a lot of you took the time to read that lol.

It's somewhat interesting...

Somewhat..