[wodin]

Schrödinger's cat explained

In formal quantum mechanics, an atom (or other entity) is in a superposition, or probabilistic combination of all possible states. In this widely accepted view, each state is possible and no state is actual until a measurement occurs. How does a measurement change multiple probable states into one actual state? E. Schrödinger's tongue-in-cheek thought experiment explores this by proposing a comparison of an atom's quantum superposition to the physical measurement of a cat's state.