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Schrödinger’s Grad Student
Ever find yoruself sitting in the back of a physics or chemistry class thinking “How am I ever going to use this in real life?” Here you go.
I recently made application to several Canadian universities for admission to their schools of architecture. I received a positive response from one school, UBC, much earlier than the others, as its application due date was the earliest.
UBC was my first-but-one choice of school, which meant I could dispense with almost all the other applications. The only other response that was important was from Dalhousie, my number one choice.
(Family and socioeconomic reasons are behind this ranking. It has little to do with the relevant merits of either UBC or Dal, which are well beyond the scope of this article.)
Now the situation in which I found myself struck me as very interesting. The first letter of acceptance set the scenario, and the second letter of either acceptance or rejection would resolve it. This was analogous to the quantum mechanics thought experiment, Schrödinger’s Cat. Here’s what I mean:
Silly pet tricks
In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger postulated that if you were to enclose a cat in a box with an atomic particle, a container of prussic acid (HCN), and a device that can detect the state of the atomic particle and trigger the release of the acid, you would prove a bizarre relationship between the ideas of classical and quantum physics.
In a given amount of time, the atomic particle must have a 50% chance of decaying. If it decays, the detection device releases the prussic acid, and the cat is poisoned. If the particle doesn’t decay, the cat lives.
This experiment exploits the chance-like nature of atomic particles, as described in quantum physics. For example, we cannot determine the location of an electron, because we alter its position by hitting it with the particle sent to detect it. So we describe the state of particles in terms of chance: An electron is likely in a particular orbit. (Inferring the location of the electron by other means is also beyond the scope of both this article and your humble correspondent.)
Fixing the cat
For Schrödinger’s experiment, it is equally likely that the atom has or has not decayed, and this uncertainty, or wave function, of the particle is further transferred to the cat.1 Until such time as we observe the contents of the box, and by thus doing collapse the wave function of the particle, the cat cannot be said to be either dead or alive. When we take a look, the probabilities are resolved, and so is the cat. This experiment endeavours to demonstrate that the wave function of an object will remain suspended in a position of all possible states until that object is observed.2
What of architecture schools?
After receiving the acceptance of UBC, there was only one other possibility: Dalhousie. I was in an experiment with two possible outcomes. Either I would be accepted by Dal, and I would move my family to the east coast, or I would be rejected, and we would move west.
So until that letter showed up at my door and I opened it to collapse the waves of probability, I was caught in a state of inaction between the coasts. When I conceived of the possible futures converging from that unopened letter, a part of me had some sympathy for Schrödinger’s poor cat.
My Dalhousie acceptance arrived in the unexpected form of an email. You never can tell.
Evan Spence
Tuesday, August
7,
2001
PD DVII