7mo ago

quantum mechanics

Playing the lotery is a good analogy to the Schroedinger cat experiment. That is, as long as you don't check the numbers

8 comments

This is a gross misinterpretation of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment and how the lottery actually works. That said, this is genuinely a shower thought because it's logic evaporates as quickly as you dry off and put your thinking pants on.
- I suffered from the wrong interpretation myself for a long time, and I think it's worth a brief explanation as to why it is wrong. It's clear why so many people misunderstand it, and I'm incapable of providing a concise, correct explanation to other people myself. But I like to see other people try, and hope one day to come across an elegant explanation that I can plagiarize.
- Well pardon me sir, my scientific background is entirely made of yt science videos for middle-schoolers!

Except that Schrödinger was trying to exemplify how impractical the Copenhagen interpretation was; that trying to apply quantum properties to systems larger than atoms would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Schrödinger was responsible for so much good work in science, but all we remember him for is his cruelty to animals. :(

How so?
- Well you have both won and not won the lotery as long as you don't check the results = measure the results of the experiment
  
  Hm. I suppose you could see it like that philosophically.
  I'd say it more like, you have not won yet until you check and see you've won, but I guess that train of thought works, as well.

8 comments