• Question: Are we able to utilise the thinking behind 'Schrodingers cat', to instantly send messages across the universe?

    Asked by blatantlyninja to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 19 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      The thinking behind Shrodingers cat was actually trying to highlight the problems in the idea of quantum entanglement, where an unobserved particle exists in multiple states simultaneously, when applied to larger objects than sub atomic particles. So I guess the fact we can’t send such messages shows that thinking to hold true ;).

    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Sadly, the answer is no. We can use entanglement (where two particles are linked even when they’re far apart) and if you do something to one particle, the other one changes at the same time. So the change in the particles is instant. That’s the good news.

      The bad news is that you can’t get the information out of the second particle easily. If you just try to observe it, it will go into a random state and it will be nonsense. In order to measure it properly (using the right mathematical tools), you have to have information about the result of the observation of the first particle. And you can only send that information as fast as the speed of light. 🙁

    • Photo: Martin Zaltz Austwick

      Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Schrodingers cat was invented as a “thought experiment” to show how strange quantum physics would look if we applied it to our everyday lives. How can a cat be both alive and dead at the same time? The science of quantum physics has led people to think that we may be able to send messages faster than the speed of light by a property called Quantum Entanglement – where two particles are linked by quantum mechanics. But these pairs are very fragile and using this for communication could be very hard.

Comments

  • Photo: blatantlyninja

    blatantlyninja commented on :

    Ah right, thanks for pointing out that Schrodinger’s Cat was refering to our everyday lives/larger than sub-atomic particles, what i meant was just quantum entanglement in general- I didnt realise there was a difference. Shame we’re not going to be updating our communications method sometime soon…