Cat in a box

Can a cat be both alive and dead at the same time?

Imagine a cat in a closed box with a mysterious device that could kill it randomly. Outside the box, we can't see what's happening inside.

In quantum mechanics, particles can exist in multiple states at once. Schrödinger's cat thought experiment shows this paradox. Technical term: quantum superposition.

Example

If we can't see the cat, it could be considered both alive and dead until we open the box.

Remember this

This paradox illustrates the strange nature of quantum mechanics, where particles can be in multiple states simultaneously.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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