CONTEST TRIVIA
Monday, April 25, 2011 at 10:54PM Did you know....
...Schrödinger and his cat first gained fame in the field of quantum physics?
My first traditionally published novel, Schrödinger’s Cat, will be released in 2011 by Wolfsinger Publications. But, who the heck is Schrödinger and what’s with his cat?
That’s what my hapless heroine asked when confronted with that phrase. It all has to do with quantum physics, believe it or not.
“Oh, I thought you meant cat, like pussy cat,” Chorie said.
“I do mean a pussy cat.”
“Quantum physics has pussy cats?”
Yes, quantum physics has a cat. A cat trapped in a box. A cat that is neither dead nor alive. It all started like this:
The tiny building blocks that make up matter, like electrons and photons, have dual personalities. Scientists can do experiments that prove these quanta are not particles but wave functions. Unfortunately for those of us who are rational, they also can do experiments that prove they are not wave functions but particles. Quantum physicists learned to live with the ambiguity and declared that it was the observation of these entities that determined which face they showed to the world.
Along about that time, Schrödinger said something like, “Wait a minute, guys. That makes no sense at all. Suppose you put a cat in a box and then you shoot an electron at it. Suppose the box is rigged to kill the cat if the electron turns out to be a particle and not kill it if it is a wave function. What happens to the cat until an observer takes a peak to see which face the electron showed us?”
Everyone went something like, “Oh, yeah. You’re right. There must be something wrong with our math. With our experiments. With our equations.”
Then along came Everett. And he said, “Wait a minute, guys. Your theory is correct because everything that can possibly happen does happen. Each possibility splits off into a new dimension. Schrödinger’s electron is both a particle and a wave function. The cat both lives and dies. The observer sees the cat both dead and alive. This is my Many Worlds Theory and it gets rid of Schrödinger’s troublesome cat and lets you keep your math and science and ambiguity. For in one world the electron is a particle and the observer finds the cat dead. In another world, the electron is a wave function and the observer sees the cat alive.”
Or something like that.
Schrödinger’s Cat by Eileen Schuh—a psychological crime thriller than spans two universes. Coming in 2011 from Wolfsinger Publications.
My novel THE TRAZ --coming soon as an ebook
The first book in my BackTracker series
Katrina is thirteen, an orphan, grieving and alone. But she is more than that. She’s intelligent, beautiful, wealthy, and intrigued by the dangers of street life.
Shrug’s a giant of a man with a voice of thunder and eyes of granite. He has tattoos, a leather jacket with The Traz gang patch, and a motorbike. When he asks Katrina if she wants a ride, she makes a decision that will change her life forever.
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Eileen I cann't wait to read Schroiding's Cat!
Exciting news!
Thanks for visiting, Miranda. I call Schrödinger's Cat a "sci-fi reality" story as opposed to sci-fi fantasy. The fact it seems so real makes it somewhat scarier.