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Created in 1935 to help explain elements of quantum mechanics, Schrodinger’s cat has become part of popular culture. Referenced in songs, poems, stories, comics, movies, video games, and emblazoned on T shirts, the cat which could be thought of as possibly alive and dead at the same time has given people other than quantum scientists something to think about.
Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrodinger probably never imagined that he would be best remembered for the thought experiment he created involving a cat sealed inside a steel box with a radioactive source and a flask of poison.
My favorite reference is from the TV show The Big Bang Theory and features the characters Penny and Sheldon. Penny has asked for Sheldon for relationship advice and he compares the scenario proposed in the Schrodinger’s Cat example to her relationship with Leonard. You can see how physicist Sheldon explains it to non-scientist Penny here. It’s another example of historic ideas becoming ingrained in current culture!
Arts in Letters learned about Schrodinger and his cat through a series of historical letters between Schrodinger and his friend and colleague, Albert Einstein. Einstein probably understood immediately how the cat could be considered both alive and dead simultaneously. The rest of us may have to think about it for a little while. Who know who and what we’ll find out through historical letters between great thinkers!
