what about things you can't look at

or is that just missing the point

i'm sorry if i come off as obtuse, but this shit...

Quote from: Prime Meridia on February 06, 2015, 04:00:14 PM

The cat isn't alive AND dead simultaneously, it is that we can't conclusively say that it is alive or dead until it is viewed.

Well yeah, but that sounds like basic probability. I was under the impression that superposition was when a particle held two seemingly contradictory states simultaneously.

Here is why quantum mechanics is not just basic probability: Schrödinger's cat is not simultaneously dead and alive, it just has a very high probability (near certainty) of being alive and dead. Normally those would be inversely related, as probability of death goes up, probability of life goes down. The idea of entanglement and the principle of superposition dictate that the probability of either event (a discrete event to which there ought to be a single, definitive answer) is greater than zero.

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on February 06, 2015, 05:06:10 PM

it just has a very high probability (near certainty) of being alive and dead.

did you mean to use the word "and" there
or did you mean "or"

because i think i get what you're saying, but your choice of words isn't very, uh
good

"and" still implies simultaneity

The probability that the cat is alive is high, and the probability that the cat is dead is high. That is simultaneous. The error is in thinking it is both until observed.

how exactly can they both be high

again, i think this is just an issue with word choice--if you said something like, "they have the same probability," then we'd be on the same wavelength

"high" doesn't seem like the right word to use--when you say "high", i wanna ask, "relative to what?"

I believe this video shows the part of the probability thing, if not, it's another video I saw.

40 seconds