Chapter 601: Chapter 517: Lynn’s Quantum Cat
Though Lynn had consecutively thrown out concepts like photons, wavelength formulas, and the probability cloud model, causing all the Wizards present to fall deep into contemplation of these theories.
But after all, many people still remembered their purpose for coming here to besiege this star of Magic!
That was to save the crumbling foundations of Magic in the wake of the onslaught of quantum theory…
Alade was keenly aware that if they could not refute Lynn today, the particle-wave duality and the elemental probability cloud model would be recognized by the council and become the mainstream magical doctrine!
The old tower of Magic built on order and regulation would then thunderously collapse!
Thinking of this, Alade turned his head and signaled to Boulder beside him.
It was now his turn to take the stage!
The great Wizard named Boulder nodded his head, then clapped his hands, and several apprentices carried out a huge, fully enclosed cage.
“This is a gift I’ve prepared for you, Speaker Lynn!” Boulder said, pointing to the cage.
Lynn glanced at it, his curiosity piqued by the cage’s substantial size.
“Inside is a camel beast, of course, according to your quantum theory, it’s probably a camel beast that’s both dead and alive!” Boulder said with a smile as he introduced it.
Inside this cage, he released a delayed lethal toxin; a healthy camel beast would typically faint and die within six to ten hours.
“And now that seven hours have passed, it might be dead or it might be alive, so can we say that it’s currently in a superposition state of being both dead and alive?” Boulder said with a smug look.
The Wizards present all burst into laughter.
This was, of course, an impossibility!
Even without observing, they understood that the camel beast inside the cage had to be in one state only, either dead or alive!
It must be said that Boulder’s use of life and death as a metaphor for waves and particles was very apt, as logically they cannot coexist.
A living being cannot be both dead and alive, and an object cannot be both a particle and a wave at the same time.
Alade and the other great Wizards all turned their heads to look at Lynn, extremely curious as to how the star of Magic would answer this question.
Boulder’s face gradually lost its smug look as he began to feel an uneasy apprehension, starting to wonder if the ‘great gift’ he had delivered was too offensive to the newly appointed Speaker.
Although he had heard that this star of Magic was open-minded in debating magical theories, it was, after all, just hearsay.
Boulder somewhat doubted whether he had been too quick to trust the encouragement of Jeffrey and others.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Lynn suddenly stretched out his hand towards Boulder.
Just as the great Wizards wondered if the star of Magic was infuriated, they saw him simply pat Boulder on the shoulder and then speak in admiration.
“Your understanding of quantum theory is very accurate, Master Boulder!”
“Hm? Ah?!” Boulder was taken aback, almost thinking he had misheard.
Alade and others were also frozen in place, completely unable to understand why the star of Magic would offer praise for Boulder’s camel beast in the cage.
It was clearly meant to ridicule his wave-particle duality and probability theory.
However, Lynn didn’t care about that; he looked at the bemused Boulder and explained with a smile, “A camel beast in a sealed state, always on the verge of death, indeed can interpret some quantum characteristics…”
“But the state of this camel beast can only be dead or alive, not a superposition of both!” A great Wizard couldn’t help but interrupt. “Whether observed or not, it definitely cannot be both dead and alive at the same time!”
“But in the absence of observation, we can’t confirm its true state, can we?” Lynn raised an eyebrow and then, without waiting for a response, looked back at Boulder, speaking again.
“Your idea is good, it’s just that the analogy isn’t quite right, let’s change the conditions a bit!”
“Change? How so?” asked a puzzled Boulder.
“First, this cage isn’t sealed enough; you can add spells that block perception and detection, and ensure there’s sufficient oxygen inside,” Lynn tapped on the large iron box holding the camel beast.
Boulder’s considerations were clearly inadequate; the closed cage had limited oxygen, and by now the poisoned camel beast was likely suffocated!
“Secondly, put a living thing inside! Considering what to put…”
“Let’s just say it’s a cat!” Lynn’s lips revealed a smile. “Then, put a device inside the sealed box, also with poison gas, the type that kills upon contact!”
“And the condition for releasing the gas is that the device’s switch is hit by decaying particles!”
“Let’s assume that the radioactive element inside the device has a 50 percent chance of emitting alpha particles every second, and a 50 percent chance that the particles will hit the switch randomly; this is more like the quantum superposition state!” Lynn spoke while stretching out his hand, and a black, magic-powered, fully sealed box appeared in his palm.
“Now I ask you, what is its state at this moment, alive or dead?”
Lynn’s voice echoed throughout the grand hall.
All Wizards’ gazes turned towards the black box in Lynn’s hand!
Though they all knew that this box was created spontaneously and contained nothing, Alade and others felt as if they were looking at a quantum Cat of bizarre form, confined within the box!
Every moment, the element might decay, meaning the cat was constantly at the threshold between life and death!
Boulder’s lips twitched involuntarily; he thought his camel beast in the cage was bizarre enough, but compared to this quantum Cat, it was trivial!
“I can’t be certain whether it’s alive or dead, but I know there’s a one in four chance the cat could be killed, and as time goes on, it’s almost certain to die!” one Wizard blurted out eagerly.
“Yes, a possibility, just a possibility!” Lynn laughed. “I could also tell you that an electron that’s been shot out, through a hundred observations, has a great likelihood of falling within the area I’ve drawn, and this probability will continue to increase over time!”
“This is my probability cloud theory!”
The state of the cat inside the box is unknown and cannot affect the outside world.
For an outside observer, the cat is always in a probable state of death, only when the box is opened does the result become fixed!