Explanation: In physics, entropy is essentially a measure of disorder or randomness in a system.
Low Entropy: A system that is highly ordered and structured. (Example: A brand-new deck of cards, sorted by suit and number).
High Entropy: A system that is highly disordered and random. (Example: The same deck of cards after being thrown in the air and scattered all over the floor).
Explanation: Schrödinger’s Cat was a thought experiment (not a real one!) proposed by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. He invented it to show how strange the rules of quantum mechanics are when you try to apply them to everyday objects.
Here’s the setup:
You place a cat in a sealed, steel box.
Inside the box, you also place a vial of poison, a radioactive atom, and a detector.
If the single radioactive atom decays, the detector senses it, triggers a hammer, the hammer smashes the vial, and the poison kills the cat.
The catch? The radioactive atom is a quantum object. According to quantum rules, until it is observed, it exists in a “superposition” of all its possible states. This means it is simultaneously decayed AND not decayed at the same time.
The Paradox:
Because the cat’s fate is directly tied to the quantum atom, the cat itself is also forced into a superposition.
Therefore, until you open the box to observe the cat, it is considered to be simultaneously 100% alive AND 100% dead.