This works as both a science joke and as a classic thriller line. However, if I bought the T-shirt, you know what I would have to change, don’t you? Because wearing it like this would drive me mad. Mad, I tell you.
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- I write thrillers: the Jo Beckett series, the Evan Delaney novels, the stand alone novel RANSOM RIVER, and the upcoming THE SHADOW TRACER. I'm from California but you can find me in London, England, and sometimes in Austin, Texas. Read here about the writing life and the lies that pay my bills.
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Capital “C” for cat?
(If there’s an apostrophe in the wrong place, I’m darned if I can see it!)
Not knowing anything about this particular moggy, I decided to investigate (she says, using thriller-like terms!) and discovered:
Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment, usually described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects.
…..you’ve lost me!
It’s a thought experiment about the indeterminacy inherent in quantum mechanics. The hypothetical involves the cat, a radioactive substance, poison, a locked box, and a paradoxical result — quantum physics implies that at one point in the experiment, the cat would be both alive and dead. From Wikipedia:
Schrödinger’s Cat: A cat, along with a flask containing a poison and a radioactive source, is placed in a sealed box shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. If an internal Geiger counter detects radiation, the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when we look in the box, we see the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead.
In any case, the point is: Don’t get in the box, cat!
Why a cat Mr. Erwin Schrödinger? Why-oh-why a cat?
Brilliant mind, yes… but you just know he had him some issues, don’t you?
Damn you (again) HTML.
Okay… damn you sleep-needing-Flakes.
Ooo, ooo, Miss, pick me. It’s the Exclamation Point.
Also, apparently, known as a screamer, from what I recall of Murder Must Advertise.
Oh wait. There’s no comma after “Look out”.
Okay, perhaps I just lost all my house points.
And I agree, why a cat?
As if you could actually get a cat into that box in the first place.
If I were running this paradoxical experiment, one would open the box and find no cat inside. Which is surely as likely as the cat being dead and alive at the same time.
Surely you could find enough blue nail polish around the house to add a comma?
What might drive you mad? I am guessing the unfocused eyes? Who wants a cat that looks like Marty Feldman? :>)
Susan and Laurie: You pinpointed the instigator of my madness. What shade of nail polish shall I use to paint in the comma? Midnight Satin, or Sparkly Aqua?
But I must say, all the other things people have pointed out are now making me itch.
Whenever it’s my turn to clean the cat box, I sometimes wonder if something died in it…
Hahahahaha.
Hmm, wouldn’t another thought be, that this experiment should be repeated nine times?
Of course I’m not taking in to consideration the, Curiosity Killed The Cat Factor…on the other hand, I didn’t note any evidence said cat entered said box out of curiosity.
Perhaps a control experiment utilizing that famous stand-by, a cat in a bag…well, I mean really, just how much of a quantum leap could that be for a fusion frolicking feline.
Shrödinger and Heisenberg were driving around Berkeley one day and got pulled over by a traffic cop. The cop asked Heisenberg,
“Do you know how fast you were going?”
“No,” Heisenberg replied “but I know exactly where I am.” Annoyed, the cop demanded to take a look around the car. He popped the trunk and on seeing what was inside shouted to the two physicists,
“Hey! Do you know there’s a dead cat in your trunk?” and Shrödinger shouted back,
“Well, we do now!”
Badum-tsh!
Thank you, thank you. I’m here all week.
Clap… clap…
Hee hee. Loved the rimshot. Okay, and the joke.
Wow. A couple of days ago, Daniel’s joke would have sounded like gobbledy-gook to me – but I actually GOT IT. And laughed!
Now feel very clever – and the memory of not having been allowed to take my Physics ‘O’ Level (because I scored 14% in the mocks) is slowly dissolving…..
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I may have to post my Schrody cat poem…