Quantum entanglement and the Schrödinger experiment

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around the philosophical implications of observation in quantum mechanics, using a coin flip and Schrödinger's cat as examples. It explores whether a true statement can be made about the state of the coin or the cat after they have been observed. The coin, once it lands, is definitively heads or tails, while the cat's fate is entangled with a quantum system, leading to a superposition of states until observed. Participants debate the differences between classical probability and quantum mechanics, emphasizing that the cat's situation cannot be directly compared to that of the coin. The conversation highlights the complexities of observation and reality in quantum theory, suggesting that the cat metaphor may oversimplify deeper issues in understanding quantum states.
Seyara
Ok so just tell me this, if you flip a coin with your eyes closed and it lands on your hand and then you look at the coin and it is heads… there was a time in the duration of the coin being in the air at which the coin was in a state of neither heads or tales. But only once it hits your hand it must pick one (in this case it picks heads facing up). now that you have opened your eyes and have knowledge that the coin is heads…… could you make a true statement that “the coin was heads only after the point at which it landed on my hand”

if what i'm asking does not make sense let me ask this in a more familiar scenario the Schrödinger experiment

if you open the box and the cat is dead, can you make a true statement that "the cat was dead after the point of explosion" even though it hadn't been observed at the time?
 
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Seyara said:
Ok so just tell me this, if you flip a coin with your eyes closed and it lands on your hand and then you look at the coin and it is heads… there was a time in the duration of the coin being in the air at which the coin was in a state of neither heads or tales. But only once it hits your hand it must pick one (in this case it picks heads facing up). now that you have opened your eyes and have knowledge that the coin is heads…… could you make a true statement that “the coin was heads only after the point at which it landed on my hand”
Yes. The coin in the air is spinning and its orientation is always well defined. When it lands its orientation is fixed.
Seyara said:
if what i'm asking does not make sense let me ask this in a more familiar scenario the Schrödinger experiment

if you open the box and the cat is dead, can you make a true statement that "the cat was dead after the point of explosion" even though it hadn't been observed at the time?
Likewise, the cat cannot physically be neither alive nor dead. When you look all the evidence points to the cat having been dead for some time.

The question is how we resolve the dilemma if the cat's fate is entangled with a micoscopic system, which can be in a superposition of states.
 
Seyara said:
could you make a true statement that “the coin was heads only after the point at which it landed on my hand”
Hi, @Seyara, welcome. No way: the coin has two sides. Here, everywhere. No comparison with the cat. Probability has nothing in common with quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, regard previous post. Mine is just an intuitive, naive, etc, opinion.
 
mcastillo356 said:
Hi, @Seyara, welcome. No way: the coin has two sides. Here, everywhere. No comparison with the cat.
The cat is not a simple quantum mechanical system. That is the point. The coin and the cat have that in common. They cannot be directly described by QM. The Schrodinger's cat thought experiment combines a simple QM system with an object, the cat, that we know is not described in the same simple way.

The solution to the question is not to treat the cat as though it were a single atom and assume that elementary QM applies.
 
PeroK said:
The solution to the question is not to treat the cat as though it were a single atom and assume that elementary QM applies.
Thanks. I've always thought that this cat is been amplified, decontextualized, trivialized, all the words ending in a disturbing "ed" :frown:. Actually, the cat is just a fingered metaphor
 
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