So what do we really know about Schrodinger's cat? More recently, this cat has appeared in Internet memes, depicting it as a zombie. I had originally taken the term to refer to an experiment where a cat was in a box and you couldn't tell whether it was dead or alive simply because you couldn't hear or see it. Technically what I understood was true, however the reality, as it usually is, is much more complicated than I thought. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Erwin Schrodinger was an Austrian physicist who lived from 1887 to 1961. He was interested in the modern understanding of quantum mechanics and quantum theory. He wanted to find out more than what the “Copenhagen interpretation,” which was the modern conception of quantum theory, had revealed. This theory depends on quantum entanglement, which is a characteristic of a quantum state that is a combination of the states of two systems that once interacted but were then separated and are not each in a defined state. The Copenhagen interpretation says that multiple responses collapse into a single defined response when the problem is observed. Schrodinger then took this knowledge and created a thought experiment to try to understand more. This experiment is “Schrodinger's cat”. The experiment works like this: there is a box with a small piece of radioactive substance, a Geiger counter, a hammer and a vial of poisonous gas. Over time the atoms that make up the radioactive substance can decay. When even a single atom decays, it emits enough radioactive particles to activate the Geiger counter, which causes the hammer to fall and shatter the vial, releasing the poisonous gas and killing the cat. What this experiment has produced is the question of whether the cat is alive or not. The only way to find out is to open the box, but opening the box ends the experiment. From this conclusion scientists have decided that since you have no idea whether he is alive or not, he is both alive and dead at the same time. Logic uses the theory of multiverses; that there is a reality in which the cat is alive while in a separate universe the reality is that the cat is dead. These two realities coexist, so the cat is alive and dead at the same time. From these findings Schrodinger created the word "entanglement" to describe how something as large as a life can depend on something as small as an atom. . This experiment also raises the question of when exactly quantum speculation will end and reality will reconcile in one possibility or another. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay So, what do we really know about Schrodinger's cat? Yes, we know it's a symbol of quantum theory, but where are the answers? This question still worries scientists today and can raise many broader discussions, such as science's assumptions about nature. But when scientists continue to work on these problems, as Schrodinger did when he expanded knowledge of quantum mechanics, we understand more and more in the hope of finally finding the answer.