Copenhagen Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics

No need to be a physicist to understand the "Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics". The Copenhagen interpretation is the "standard" interpretation of quantum mechanics formulated by Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen around 1927. Bohr and Heisenberg extended the probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction, proposed by Max Born. In this interpretation of quantum mechanics, the state of every particle can be described by a wavefunction, which is a mathematical representation used to calculate the probability for it to be found in a location or a state of motion. According to this interpretation, the act of measurement causes the calculated set of probabilities to "collapse" to the value defined by the measurement.

Apply the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics to a thought experiment as devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. Is the cat dead or alive? In each of these gifts is an illustration of what Schrödinger saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics as applied to everyday objects. The thought experiment presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event. In the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, a system stops being a superposition of states and becomes either one or the other when an observation takes place. This experiment makes apparent the fact that the nature of measurement, or observation, is not well-defined in this interpretation. The experiment can be interpreted to mean that while the box is closed, the system simultaneously exists in a superposition of the states "decayed nucleus/dead cat" and "undecayed nucleus/living cat", and that only when the box is opened and an observation performed does the wave function collapse into one of the two states. Weird, huh?

Regardless, you do not have a quantum physicist or a physics major to understand the practical entanglement that exists. Enjoy any of these gifts presenting the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the paradox of Schrödinger's cat -- whether dead or alive at the time of observation.












If you believe that life is nothing but a Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics -- i.e., entanglement -- you'll enjoy these gifts.












If you are finding quantum superposition hard to explain, you'll enjoy these gifts.












If you are a quantum physicist, you'll enjoy these gifts -- for all those who think that Physics Is Phun.