2/29/2024 0 Comments Erwin schrödinger atomic theoryToday it's also known as the de Broglie-Bohm theory. It was shelved until the 1950s, when David Bohm rediscovered and improved it. The theory was first proposed in 1927 by another pioneer of quantum mechanics: Louis de Broglie. That's what pilot wave theory tries to fix. But the idea fits every experiment we've ever done, and over time, physicists have come to accept that reality is sometimes … kind of blurred. Now, superpositions don't appear in everyday life, but according to the Copenhagen interpretation, on the tiny scale of particles, they're everywhere, which is obviously very weird. Before you opened the box, its true state was the superposition of alive and dead. But opening the box doesn't tell you that the cat was always alive that whole time. No kitties were harmed in the making of this episode. Once you open the box, you turn the superposition into one state you actually observe — let's say alive. Before it's observed, the atom is in a superposition of decayed and not-decayed — meaning it's both at the same time. But here's where the Copenhagen interpretation is different from regular probability. Normally, if there was a 50/50 chance a cat was alive, you'd say the cat was either alive or dead — you just wouldn't know which. Before you open the box, you have no idea whether or not the atom decayed, and therefore no idea whether the poison was released or not. Whether or not it happens to an individual atom is exactly the kind of random event that the mainstream interpretation of quantum mechanics says is entirely unpredictable. Radioactive decay is a quantum mechanical process. But the poison will only be released if a radioactive atom decays, which has, say, a 50% chance of happening. In the thought experiment, you hide a cat in a box with a flask of deadly poison. But it turns out that poor cat was actually a good illustration of superposition — and that, yes, a lot of quantum mechanics makes no sense when you try to apply it to the larger world we're more familiar with. Schrödinger was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, and his cat-in-a-box thought experiment was actually meant to show that some implications of the theory were just … ridiculous. This concept, that particles are in multiple states at the same time, is known as superposition, and it's what inspired Erwin Schrödinger's famous dead-and-alive cat. It also says that certain things, like which way an electron is spinning, aren't really set until you observe them — and until you do, the electron is spinning in both directions at once. It includes a lot of the more well-known ideas around quantum mechanics, like that something can be a particle and a wave at the same time. The conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics is called the Copenhagen interpretation, after the institute where it was devised in the 1920s. But there's a catch: getting rid of the randomness involves breaking reality in other ways. At first glance it looks appealing: it allows you to get around the uncertainty and randomness that quantum mechanics is famous for. One of the more controversial interpretations is called pilot wave theory. They all make the same predictions about what quantum mechanics looks like on the surface — so, what will actually happen in experiments in the labs — but the math, and the meaning of the math, can look very different. There are a number of different interpretations of quantum mechanics out there, each of which looks at the theory differently. Although we understand how to use the math behind the theory, understanding what it means has proven to be a difficult challenge. And as we've learned more about it, we've got better at using it to solve problems and invent all kinds of useful things, like lasers and semiconductors. But as weird as the implications of that are, it's stood up to every experimental test thrown at it. It also hard to make videos about, but we're doing it! It's the physics of the super-tiny, and it's built around the idea that energy isn't a smooth spectrum — it can only come in set amounts. I've said it before and I'll say it again: quantum mechanics is weird. Thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring SciShow. Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters Noe, الخليفي سلطان, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:īill & Katie Scholl, Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Andrew Finley Brenan, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. But understanding it can help us to understand the universe. Quantum mechanics is weird and seems a bit.complicated. Go to to get 20% off of an annual Premium subscription.
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