Friday, July 21, 2006

an extension on a thought

so today i was thinking about the sign on the grange hall in Addison, and, as an observer, keeping the two possibilities of sign-maker intention in mind simultaneously.

i've mentioned i got this cat: "q"

which further spun out. to the quantum.

Here's Schrödinger's (theoretical) experiment: We place a living cat into a steel chamber, along with a device containing a vial of hydrocyanic acid. There is, in the chamber, a very small amount of a radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the substance decays during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip a hammer, which will, in turn, break the vial and kill the cat. The observer cannot know whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed, and consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed. Since we cannot know, the cat is both dead and alive according to quantum law, in a superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and learn the condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes one or the other (dead or alive). This situation is sometimes called quantum indeterminacy or the observer's paradox: the observation or measurement itself affects an outcome, so that it can never be known what the outcome would have been if it were not observed.

guess the only certainty is that its best to keep it all in mind. simultaneously. truth is funny.

Colden tommorow. will post pix as available.

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