As I take my pals Baloo and gmack by the hand and show them around my windowless laboratory with its locked doors, I show them a box that may or may not contain a live cat. Ok, you all know what I'm talking about now. Who then, according to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, was the only person able to look inside this box, and what was the theory behind it?

ranan

Seems to be Hisashi Nando Greentree http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA011700/physics/catwww.htm Dec 10 04, 1:12 AM

Stew54

I think you'll be talking about Wigner's friend, who is either happy or sad (depending on the fate of his cat), but Wigner won't know which until he comes back into the lab. I don't think I could explain this properly though - it's one of those things, like tax allowances, that I think I understand every time I read about it, but fifteen minutes later it's all jumbled up again. Last week we adopted a stray cat that was hanging around the church car park and I wanted to call her Shrodinger. I lost out in a very early round of the domestic voting though, and we've since had to refer the matter of The Name to a special tribunal formed by the United Nations. Dec 10 04, 8:44 AM

peasypod

Yep, it was "Wigner's friend". Eugene Wigner pointed out that the "cat in the box" experiment could be carried out inside a windowless laboratory with locked doors, where only one person (Wigner's friend) could look inside the box to see if the cat were alive or dead. The question of this progression in the experiment is; Does the superposition of states representing the cat collapse into single state when the friend looks into the box? Or does the friend now become part of the superposition of states, until somebody unlocks the door to find out the outcome of the experiment? Perhaps Wigner himself becomes part of the superposition once he knows the answer, and when he tells someone else, and so on...... Taken to the extreme, the implication is that the wave function of the universe cannot collapse, because there is no observer outside the universe to observe it. Ahhh, something for you to think about stewy while the stewettes name your new puddy. Dec 10 04, 8:56 AM

Create a Free FunTrivia ID to add to, request more/new answers, or edit this entry

I was not sure who to send this to and how to send it, so I decided to send an email to everyone on my mother's address book. I know some of you may already know this but, my mother passed away this morning at 8:10 am. Some of you may have known her as Carryll, Vivian or Finlady. My mother suffered for many years. She went peacefully and she is now with God, probably talking an arm and a leg off him asking questions..haha! We will miss her, but it was good to see her at peace. The obituary will be in the Eagle herald tomorrow. The address is www.eagleherald.com. Love to all, Liane (her daughter) I received the above e-mail today and thought those that don't use the forums would like to know. The obligatory question mark? I have a hazelnut/filbert tree in front of my house but every year the squirels take all of them before they're ready to eat. Does anyone know a safe method for preventing this theft of my nuts? I am shown 3 boxes by a benefactor from which I must select one. Two are empty but the third contains great wealth. I do not know which contains the fortune although my benefactor does. I make my choice and select one. Before I open it, the benefactor opens one of the remaining boxes and reveals its contents. NOTHING INSIDE. He then offers me the chance of changing my original selection and exchanging it for the remaining unopened box. What a dilemma. Do I swap, do I keep my original choice, does it make any difference to my chance of success? "I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France." Who said these words before being executed?

1 My Box of Rocks When I was a kid, I loved collecting rocks, and I had an ENORMOUS rock collection! Want to peek inside my box of rocks? Science for Kids Average 10 Q pu2-ke-qi-ri Oct 22 06 3498 plays 2 May I Quote You? Here are some various random quotes, from various random actors, from various random films. Some of these quotes are tough and you might need to scratch your head a little. Good luck! Finish The Quote Difficult 10 Q Diceazed Jan 23 04 13068 plays 3 All About The Box Answer some questions on a range of American television programmes. Good luck! Difficult Grab Bag Difficult 10 Q slaycj Jun 09 01 1239 plays