What was the name of Schrödinger's cat?

By Bill Persson

I have always been annoyed at the popular scientific interpretations which maintain and increase the mystique of quantum theory rather than explain it. Quantum mechanics have been the most successful theory in the history of scinece; and at the same time the most perplexing of all.
‘Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it’, is a quote from one of the pioneers of this theory.
A particle is claimed to be in two places simultaneously, electrons can be both particles and waves and a cat can be both alive and dead at the same time!
A the quantum level the matter seemingly behaves absurd. But you are made up of these absurd particles, and you are using quantum physics on a daily basis.
I’ll explain this theory and reveal many of the myths and will also present a solution.
To tackle the most difficult we know, which even Einstein failed to carry out was so grandiose hubris behaviour and such an insame idea that i couldn’t resist.

• Language: Svenska
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: May 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9789178513888

Book preview

Content:

My foreword

Newton's bucket

Thomas Young's double slits

Einstein's gloves

Bell's inequality

The trickster’s fabrications

Schrödinger's cat

Heisenberg's uncertainty

Everett's and the many others' worlds

Galton's board

Einstein's relativity theories. Quantum theory. Galton's board. Zipf's Law. Two dice. The wave function. Heredity or environment and a smoking break. Complementarity. To measure, or not to measure - that is the answer. Where is my car? Zeno's arrow. What is the speed of stationary? How far is it to Tipperary? A sound explanation. Two bricks. The wheel spins in both directions. Where is the end of the rainbow? A bombshell in physics. Quantum computer. Prevent radioactive decay by staring at it. Red light, green light! Spun the bucket or not? God indeed play dice. Decoherence. Darwin. The emperor's new clothes. A space odyssey in microcosm. What was the name of Schrödinger's cat? This is not a pipe. Spooky action at a distance. Thinking in quantlish. Chaos is the neighbor of order. Exactly exact. Is the moon there when nobody looks? A quantum smorgasbord. Newton is not dead. The solution is right under your nose.

Bill's ether

Why they do not fit together? Theory of everything. The sum of everything is zero. The heat death. Creation without a Creator. Laws without lawmakers. Like a movie. Oh no, not the ether again. We turn inside out and upside down on universe. We are just empty.

My foreword

It is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way said quantum physicist Richard Feynman. But with this book, we will solve this impossible task, by turning upside down and inside out of this problem, in other words - to think and talking in quantlish!

Quantum mechanics or quantum theory is the most successful theory in the history of science, but very few people have heard of it and even fewer understand it. Not even quantum physicists fully understand how quantum mechanics works.

One of quantum physics major and most prominent figure in the dominant Copenhagen interpretation, Niels Bohr, said: If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet And thereto may be added: Whoever claims to understand quantum physics has also apparently not understood it. And still, after about a century, is it just as bad. But we will, as I said, remedy this.

Sometimes when I talk about quantum physics bizarre impacts to people who are not versed in physics, they think I'm kidding. And after assuring that everything is true, I can almost see what they are thinking: He must have been eating a funny mushroom, or something.

Even if you never heard of quantum physics it operates quite near you in everyday life. It works unnoticed in your smartphone, TV, computer and any other electronic devices you use. And without quantum mechanics would these gadgets not exist at all. It is also a major economic power. Thirty percent of the entire United States gross domestic product is based on inventions from quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics clarify the basics of physics, chemistry and touch even biology when there are many indications that it also may explain part of the photosynthesis and bird navigation. No other theory has had more applications in so many different areas.

But it also produces effects which are totally impossible to occur according to classical physics. And perhaps that is why quantum mechanics is also surrounded by myths, unsubstantiated claims and sometimes actually pure lies.

The most common misunderstanding about quantum mechanics is:

A particle can be in two places at once.

Two particles can affect each other at a distance, immediately (faster than the speed of light).

Particles don’t decide what they are until we looking.

A cat can be both alive and dead at the same time.

Very often, you get to hear these statements from people who have seen a popular science TV programs. When I try to explain that it doesn't work quite that way, becomes the response: Oh, yes, they said that on TV!, and then it must be true. And if it was a professor of physics who hosted the program, it must be double true.

We have all seen this popular science television program where they spectacular demonstrate quantum physics mysteries in an MTV style and you are even more confused than before.

The TV host, sometimes a physicist, but usually only a celebrity in general who babbles on and try to be cool. It all illustrated with pop video effects that were pioneering in the 1970s, but now just sadly pathetic. To this rock video-aesthetics served sound effects à la Star Wars as whrom - TV host stand and looking at his doubles when he says that a particle can be in two places at once. Zoom! - TV host goes through a wall to show the tunnel effect (especially popularly is a noise that sounds like when you hear a distant toilet flushing). The host crouching theatrically when something whizz through the studio depicting an unidentified particle and you self is only sick and tired of all this stupidity. It is dumbing down television when it's most embarrassing, and the tragedy is that there has been no serious alternative. They assume that the audience consists of a flock of village idiots that best fed with even more idiocy.

Popular science magazines usually keep the same abysmal standard. They maintain and reinforce the mystique of quantum theory instead of inform. They prefer the spectacular; they make the difficult even more difficult and spreading nonsense, myths and sometimes entire lies about the physics. Popular Science has over the years developed a mysticism that sets the stage for various New Age books which sullied the science with religious hocus pocus. And this has incited unscrupulous salesman to market shit like quantum therapy and quantum healing.

In summary, the misleaders think, since populace however does not understand this; we can bring out this garbage anyhow.

But why presented the quantum mechanics so mysterious, and why don't they strive to seriously explain it clearly? I think there are (at least) four explanations:

Probably, it's a bit of a closed society among quantum mechanics - a holier-than-thou attitude: To keep the secrets to be able to shine.

Many physicists and even laymen want to preserve the obscure; our weakness for magic and a great magic trick are not supposed to be disclosed. People love myths and get pissed if you reveal them.

There is an apathy. If you can't teach them - confuse them. Quantum physics is too complicated and seems to lack all stringency, and to explain it is about as easy as making peace in the Middle East.

Last but not least, quantum mechanics is difficult to explain without the mathematical language. And all the splendid quantum physicists are not always equally splendid educators.

I will not torment you with some Hamilton operators, Hilbert spaces or formulas with what looks like hieroglyfs to me, which I don't understand myself. Instead, I will use similes and metaphors to illustrate the quantum world. To clarify the text, I also have some pictures for help.

The physicist Alain Aspect has otherwise said like this: you are either satisfied with the equations about quantum mechanics and refrain from trying to make a picture of it. Or, you try to illustrate quantum mechanics but then there is always something strange with the pictures.

I will rebelliously illustrate quantum mechanics in words and images so that it becomes less strange.

Although there are those who stubbornly says the only way to convey the understanding of quantum physics is through the mathematical language, amen! I cannot swear that they are wrong, but I will still make an effort to translate these mathematical lingoes, consisting of incomprehensible formulas to everyday language so that everyone can understand. Besides the formula on the front cover, which is said to mathematically describe Schrödinger's famous cat experiment; you will not find more arithmetic squiggles on the following pages.

It has also been said that we need not understand quantum theory's philosophical dimensions; in fact, the most quantum physicists ignore the metaphysical. They just note that it works to calculate with, and that's enough. Shut up and calculate has become a concept in the quantum world. But how about us; we, who do not understand this advanced mathematics? We, who cannot calculate, and for that matter, nor shut up either. We must find other ways, and this book is meant to be such a rescue.

Perhaps I'm too self-confident? Maybe I bite off more than I can chew? But I believe that no one has succeeded in explaining quantum mechanics satisfactory, so who has the mandate to prevent me from making the same mistakes?

However, all is not said about quantum theory, and there are as many interpretations of it as there are channels on television. Therefore, I will also terrorize you with my own speculations in the blind spots in this theory. And there is a one word in this book, which will be repeated frequently, often painfully often. But it is in my absolute and almost obsessive belief the key to the riddle. The word, the keyword, you'll soon discover. With that said, I can of course be wrong. On the other hand, those who are afraid of being wrong will never find the right. Right?

Once upon a time in my innocent youth, God knows how long ago, I won first prize in a popular science magazine I subscribed to. They wanted an eloquent, and also preferably a correct answer to a riddle. The question was: Why do mirrors reverse left and right, but they don't reverse up and down? It’s called the mirror paradox. First prize was a book, and that the answer should be published in the newspaper. My well-drafted response never came out in the newspaper when the rag went bankrupt before publication. But I received the book anyway. Whether my price was the tuft which overturned the financial load for the magazine I still do not know.

So, what was my answer? Well, the answer is simply that the mirror does not reverse images from left to right. It is rather our brain who tricks us; that our face is a person standing opposite us in the mirror who has rotated 180 degrees. If you stand in front of the mirror, you can easily find out for yourself. Put your right index finger on the right cheek and - the finger is on the right cheek, even in the mirror image. Isn't it?

It was therefore the question was wrong… namely, there is no paradox. We are going the same way here, not only shed light on the quantum physics paradoxes, but also reveal that there are no paradoxes. Just like in the mirror paradox we ask the wrong questions. For as is often the case that the questions for which we do not have answers, not due to the lack of answer but because the questions are worded wrong.

The first question to ask when solving a problem is: Is there really a problem? Although quantum physicists fundamentally understand quantum mechanics and can treat it mathematically, they have been poor to deliver this knowledge in a clear way.

I want to demystify quantum physics, but first we'll look at the mystery. It is the largest puzzles that humanity has faced and there is no one who completely solved it, even though it's been a hundred years since it was first presented. Even Einstein failed and never accepted any explanation. Okay,