A Matter of Time

Famous physicists view of time - Erwin Schrödinger

"We must not wait for things to come, believing that they are decided by irrescindable destiny. If we want it, we must do something about it. Erwin Schrodinger

Erwin Schrödinger: Austrian (born August 12, 1887; died January 4, 1961)

Erwin Schrödinger was born in Vienna in 1887.  While growing up, Schrödinger was passionate about learning, especially when it came to the subjects of science, ancient grammar, and German poetry.  It was said however that, like many students in his day and around the world today, he was not particularly fond of memorizing facts and figures.  Still he was a dedicated scientist and citizen, and he led a busy life while constantly pursuing new experiences.  At the age of 19 Schrödinger entered the Technical College of Vienna.  In addition to keeping up his studies, he also served as an artillery officer during the First World War.  In the years following his schooling at Vienna, he became an assistant to a variety of physicists who helped him on his way to becoming one of the most important minds in time-physics.  During this time he worked on research and the writing of many scientific papers.

In 1935, Schrödinger published a paper describing one of the problems inherent with some of his theories on quantum mechanics.  In it he described the following “Schrödinger’s Cat” experiment, which has become one of the most well known paradoxes in quantum theory and was meant to show that quantum mechanics does not always apply to larger and more concrete things.  The experiment involves a cat being put into a metal box with a radioactive substance and a vial of hydrocyanic acid.  As this radioactive substance decays, there is a 50% chance that it will emit an atom over the course of an hour. If that happens, a hammer will break the vial, a deadly gas will be emitted, and the cat will die.  The conflict herein is this: unless they open the box, the observer cannot know if the atom was released and the cat is alive or dead.  Therefore, according to quantum law, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time.  The logic behind this conclusion goes something like this:

• Before the box is opened, the fate of the cat is based on the state of the radioactive substance. 
• Experiments in quantum physics have shown that atomic particles can be in multiple locations at the same time.

Therefore, until an observer opens the box to ascertain the health of the cat at that moment in time, since the atomic particle exists in multiple states, and since the cat's health is dependent on the state of the atomic particles, the cat's health (living or dead) is in multiple states and consequently is both alive and dead at the same time.  Schrödinger argued that this was nonsense and that it was an example of trying to apply the laws of quantum mechanics to situation where it shouldn't be applied. 

An additional contribution that this Austrian physicist provided to the field of time physics was an equation bearing his name: the Schrödinger equation.  It explained how a wavelength changes over a period of time.  Quantum mechanics itself gives the probability that a certain measurement will be made, or that a certain outcome will occur (“Schrödinger’s Cat for a 6th Grader”).  As a result of all of his diligent and innovative works, Schrödinger won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1933 (“Erwin”) and is known as the father of quantum mechanics.

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