Do you like this Many-Worlds interpretation of the Quantum Mechanics paradox refered to as Schrödinger's Cat?

Question

PARALLEL PROPHECIES

Dear Senator Obama, this is truly my plan

To fathom your quip, i.e., "YES WE CAN"!

For I have been reading Schroedinger's cat

Although none of the felines are Democrat.

This unusual animal, or so it is said,

Is simultaneously alive & fo sho dead!

I don't understand just why it can't be

Either one or other, unquestionably.

Our future now hangs between Heaven and Jihad.

"SURGE WON'T WORK"-that's NOT from Mossad.

What were you thinking, Senator, can you recall?

When making such prophecy with no crystal ball?

If you know, Barack, then show me the way

And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.

But if this Paradox has perplexed EVEN YOU,

Then you WILL & WON'T sit in the Oval Office too!

http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/SchrodCat/SchrodCat.html

Schrödinger's Cat

Answer 1

ah, i love schrodingers cat.

and i love quantum entanglement, excellent story blue sky.

i vote blue sky for best answer!

Answer 2

Imagine that a conjurer of impressive reputation is in town and

          one night you go along to his show.

           “For my next trick,” he says, “I want a couple from the audience.”

         To your embarrassment he points straight at you and moments later

         you find yourself on stage with your partner.

           “I would like to give you a chance to get rich,” he says, pointing to

         a large pile of scratch-off lottery cards, looking like a clock but with 60 numbers instead of 12, all seemingly identical,

           “All you have to do to win a prize,” he goes on, “is select one of

         these cards, and tear it in half between you. Each take your half of the

         card and scratch off 1 of the 60 silvered spots on the clock face to

          reveal the color, either black or white. If the spots you scratch turn out

         to be different colors, you win $500. And it costs only $10 to play!

            Ã¢Â€ÂœOf course each of you is allowed to scratch off only one spot on

         your respective half of the card. And there is one further rule - To win

         the prize, you and your partner must choose spots exactly one place

         apart on the clock face.

            Ã¢Â€ÂœYou must allow me some secrets, so I will not tell you exactly

         how the cards are colored. But I will tell you this much. Half of all the

           spots are black, and half white. Also if you and your partner were to

  scratch off the same spot on each clock face, you would always get the same color—both spots would be black, or both white. But if you were to scratch off spots exactly 90 degrees apart from each other, you would always get opposite colors; white and black, or black and white:’

             It seems like a bargain, but you hesitate. How do you know he is

         telling the truth? “I’m from this town, and you’ve got to show me,” you

         reply, to cheers from the rest of the audience. The conjuror nods,

         unsurprised.

             “Be my guest,” he says. “You and your partner may choose any

         card from the pile, and perform either of those two tests—scratch the

         same spot on each half, or spots 90 degrees apart on each half. Do that  as many times as you like. If you prove me a liar, I’ll pack up my magic show and take an honest job!”

             You and your partner duly pull out and test numerous cards. The

         results confirm the conjurer’s predictions.

             Is it worth playing the game? You think carefully. First, the left

         and right halves of each card must be identically colored—otherwise

         you would not be sure of getting the same color every time you scratch

         spots in matching positions. Second, there must be at least one place

         in each 90-degree arc where the color changes between black and

         white. If any card had an arc of more than 90 degrees all one color,

you could sometimes scratch spots 90 degrees apart and get the same color.

             The most obvious guess—and no doubt what the conjurer in-

         tends you to think—is that the cards are colored in four quarters. There cannot be fewer segments, because then you could scratch spots 90 degrees apart  and get the same color, which never happens. They might be divided into more segments, but that would actually increase your chances of winning—there are more black-white boundaries to hit.

             As you go round the circle, from spot to spot, you take a total of 60

         steps. At least 4 of those steps—maybe more, but certainly no fewer—

         involve a color change, stepping from a black spot to a white one or

         vice versa. It follows that the chance of a color change on any particular step is at least 1 in 15. At those odds, it is certainly worth risking

$10 to win $500, and you accept the bet and select a card. The conjurer  beams.

            Ã¢Â€ÂœTo make the game a little more dramatic, I will ask you to tear

         the card in two between you, and each take your half into one of the

         curtained booths at the back of the stage.” He points to two curtained

         cubicles rather like photo booths. “Each of you should scratch a spot

         of your choice, then stand and hold the card above your head. After a

         few seconds the curtains will be whisked away, and you and the audience will see immediately whether you have won. Of course, you can

         use any strategy you like to decide which spots to scratch. You may

         confer in advance, you may decide at random, you can toss coins or

         roll dice if you think it will help.”

            He watches with a smile as you and your partner choose a card,

         tear it apart, and depart to your respective booths. You have in fact

         decided in whispers that you will scratch off spots number 17 and 18,

         as measured clockwise from the top. You scratch off your spot and it is

         revealed as black. You hold the card above your head as instructed. But when a moment later a drumroll sounds and the curtains are whisked aside, the audience sighs in disappointment; your partner’s spot is also black. You have lost the game.

            As you take your seats again, you are not particularly surprised or

         disappointed. After all, you reckoned you had only 1 chance in 15 of

         winning. But now the conjurer proceeds to call up more of the

         audience, two by two, and put them through the same procedure, 100

         couples in all. Out of the lot, only one couple wins—you would have

         expected six or seven. The winning odds appear to be 1 in 100 rather

         than 1 in 15, and the conjurer has made a tidy profit. There seems to

         have been some mistake in your logic.

            You are feeling quite worried. If your reasoning can mislead you

         this badly, you are obviously at risk of being cheated right, left, and

center. As the crowd flocks toward the exits at the end of the show,  you are therefore delighted to see your longstanding friend and colleague,

         Emeritus Professor Cope. Professor Cope might be old, but he is the

         most impressive guy you know. This man has Einstein’s scientific in-

         tuition, Popper’s philosophical insight, and James Randi’s fraud-bust-

         ing ability, all combined in one person. He sees your troubled

         expression, and smiles.

            Ã¢Â€ÂœDon’t worry,” he says. “I’m quite sure all is not as it seems. I’m

         going to investigate this setup. I’ll drop by on Monday and tell you

         what I’ve discovered.”

            But on Monday, Professor Cope does not look triumphant. He

         brushes aside your offer of tea.

            Ã¢Â€ÂœThe conjurer we saw was not cheating in any obvious way. In

         fact, he turns out not really to be a conjurer at all. The only special

         thing about him is that he had the luck to come across the supplier of

         these extraordinary cards. I managed to track down this supplier, and

         ordered a big batch for myself. I’ve been testing them under controlled

         conditions, and the results are still exactly the same as you saw at the

         show the other night.”

           Your mouth falls open. “But how can that be?” you ask.

           Professor Cope smiles. “To quote a respected source, ‘When you

         have ruled out the impossible, what remains, however improbable,

         must be the truth.’ The only way to get the results we see is if the two

         cards contain some internal mechanism that changes the spot color

         depending on circumstances. For there is no fixed coloring that can

         explain the results.

           “But the card halves must also be in some kind of radio contact

         with one another. If they operated independently, there is no way the

         colors could then always match when you scratch the same place on

         each. One card half on its own could not tell whether the other half

         had that same spot scratched, or a different one.

           “So the two halves must be in communication. Each half some-

         how knows which spot was scratched on the other, hence the angle

between the two spots, and the color revealed on each card is selected

         accordingly. It is amazing even in these days of advanced electronic

         technology, but each card must include something like a miniaturized

         radio transmitter and inks that can change color. I am going to prove

         my hypothesis by separating the two halves of a card in such a way

         that communication between them is impossible. Then we will see the

         mysterious correlation between the two parts vanish. I will tell you the

         result next week.”

           But the following Monday, Professor Cope does not look any

         happier.

           “I tried testing halves of the lottery cards in lead-lined cellars

         several miles apart, and still got the same disconcerting results. So I borrowed two of those special security cabins-on-stilts used by the

         military and diplomats for top-secret conferences inside embassies.

         They are designed to allow absolutely no signal of any kind to leak out.

         Yet when lottery cards were scratched inside each of them, the results

         were still the same.

           “Then I had a better idea. It occurred to me that there is no such

         thing as a perfect shield for radio and other waves. So I tore a big batch of cards in half, and mailed one set of halves to Australia. I also built a  mechanism that allowed a card to be scratched, and the color revealed to be permanently recorded at an - ah well - out of space...