James Baquet

    Like Albert Einstein, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) spent a considerable time working on the idea of a “Unified Field Theory” (UFT), the application of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to describe the unification of gravity, electromagnetism, and nuclear forces. In fact, he corresponded with Einstein on the topic, but when Schrodinger presented his thoughts at the Royal Irish Academy in 1947, Einstein criticized his work and called it “preliminary,” and not useful in understanding the UFT.

    Two of Schrodinger’s other efforts had better results.

    The first is the “Schrodinger equation,” which describes changes in the quantum state of a physical system over time. This achievement earned him a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933.

    The second is more intriguing. It is a “thought experiment” called “Schrodinger’s cat.” It helps us see the distinction between the rarified world of quantum physics and the more common-sense one in which most of us live.

    Two physicists, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, insisted that ordinary language should be used to report the results of complex experiments. This “Copenhagen interpretation” led to them saying (in very simple terms) that a subatomic event would remain “indeterminate” until it could be proven by direct observation, and could thus be considered to have both happened and not happened at the same time. This is a kind of “paradox.”

    Schrodinger disagreed. He argued like this: Put a cat in a box, and with it a very small bit of radioactive material. Set up a Geiger counter (a sensing device) to determine if and when the material decays. If/when that happens, a mechanism will release some poison and kill the cat.

    If we say that the event has both happened and not happened at the same time (because there is no direct observation), we must say that the cat is both alive and not alive at the same time, a situation that will only change when we open the box. Schrodinger himself called this “ridiculous,” and used it to show that the Copenhagen interpretation was mistaken.

    Schrodinger died at 73 of tuberculosis.

    Vocabulary

    Which word above means:

    1. emitting high energy

    2. wrote back and forth

    3. a situation that seems to contradict itself, but is discovered to be true when examined closely

    4. unproven, premature

    5. unable to be known

    6. far away from ordinary experience

    7. joining together

    8. very interesting

    9. a disease of the lungs