Are you confused yet?

If you enjoyed the videos I posted yesterday about relativity, you have (hopefully) been forced to think about some pretty weird stuff. If you didn’t enjoy the videos, you obviously didn’t watch them. Do it!

Luckily, we are only just scratching the surface of the stimulating weirdness that�science offers. Yesterday we looked at Einstein’s Relativity. There’s heaps more to dig into in that area, but today we’re going to zoom in�to the tiny world of Quantum mechanics (in a very basic way)

Are you made of particles or waves? Can something�be both dead and alive at the same time?�Why does it ‘pick’ a state when observed?
As with relativity, you’ll never need to understand this - but just imagine how cool and intelligent you could sound at a party. (”Oh yes, but as the concept of superposition tells us…”

These videos give a�fun description of some weird quantum stuff (and the�cartoon ‘professor’ might just be the weirdest of all).

Particles or waves? (This one gets weirder the further in you get) - 5mins

Is there space at all? -1min

Lastly, can a cat be both dead and alive at the same time?

“Schr�dinger’s cat” is a kind of thought experiment. Imagine a cat is locked in a box (vegetarians: its ok, we’re just pretending) with a vial of acid and a radioactive atom. When the radioactive atom decays, it triggers a hammer that smashes the vial of acid - killing the cat.
The trick is this: when the atom decays is purely random. Say you left the box for an hour. When you came back, there would be a chance that the cat is dead, and a chance that it is still alive.
But according to quantum mechanics, the atom (until it is observed) has both decayed and not decayed. If you watched the first video above, this is like the electron passing through both slits.
So, until you open the box, the cat is both dead and alive. (more info)

Food for thought: To someone outside the room, even after the box has been opened, the whole room contains a cat that is both�dead and alive. What about someone unaware of this person? When would this end? (Something omniscient?)

If you have some ‘dead time’ today (sitting on a bus, waiting for a friend, in the elevator of a very, very�tall building), these could be interesting� things to throw around in your head.

The world is weird!
What is the weirdest thing about the world you can think of?