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Schrödinger's Christmas Present


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Old 24-12-2016, 22:09
Dotheboyshall
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If I don't open it then it remains simultaneously the present I do want and the one I don't want.

What should I do?
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Old 24-12-2016, 22:15
Achtung
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I'm not with you.
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Old 24-12-2016, 22:17
sodavlac
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Set it on fire.

Edit: Or open it? Yeah, that would be best.
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Old 24-12-2016, 22:19
zounds
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You won't be able to enjoy the 'maybe' good present unless you open it, unless the thought of it 'maybe' being there is good enough?
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Old 24-12-2016, 22:30
Arcana
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Get your cat to open it. 🐱👤
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Old 24-12-2016, 22:36
swingaleg
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Get your cat to open it. 🐱👤
I asked the cat but he said, 'Me?, How'
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Old 24-12-2016, 22:40
RobinOfLoxley
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There is no Present until it is opened.

If you value your ongoing life, it will always be the right present when it is opened.
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Old 24-12-2016, 23:20
CravenHaven
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Can Santa simultaneously give a wave and a party call?
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Old 24-12-2016, 23:42
phylo_roadking
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I asked the cat but he said, 'Me?, How'
Get it to nip in and open it from the inside...
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Old 25-12-2016, 00:12
swingaleg
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well obviously you'll have to collapse the wave function

have you got a pin ?
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Old 25-12-2016, 00:16
Richard46
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It is already what it is. Schrödinger was having a laugh.

So open the box there is then a chance you get what you want. If you keep it closed there is no chance.
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Old 25-12-2016, 00:35
An Thropologist
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If I don't open it then it remains simultaneously the present I do want and the one I don't want.

What should I do?
Get your cat to open it. 🐱👤
In the fridge.
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Old 25-12-2016, 00:45
spiney2
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Everyone seems to have entirely missed the point of that darn cat. If there's anything visible inside the box, then it's a macro size object, not subject to any ''uncertainty'' at all
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Old 25-12-2016, 00:56
Richard46
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Everyone seems to have entirely missed the point of that darn cat. If there's anything visible inside the box, then it's a macro size object, not subject to any ''uncertainty'' at all
Not so. See my post #11
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Old 25-12-2016, 01:41
silentNate
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I fear the OP's present is...

Spoiler
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Old 25-12-2016, 01:49
RobinOfLoxley
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True story

Many years ago, my 15 yr old sister had been wheedling and begging for some sort of Ghetto Blaster / Mini HiFi System for her bedroom.

As we were becoming young adults, we developed a tradition of opening most of our Under Tree presents after Lunch and Washing up and Queens Speech.

Her Big Box Main Present was magnetically attractive throughout the day, and was destined to be one of the last to be opened.

Finally, the time came....

She carefully started removing the wrapping to reveal a Sony Ghetto Blaster Box!

Floods of tears, she was so happy.

But it was a cruel twist of fate. It was just a convenient box taken from the supermarket, used to pack a Pair of Green Wellies.

A Niagara of Tears followed.

This was not a cruel joke by our Mum, she was totally unaware of the coincidence.

She was never forgiven either for being useless in this instance , and never allowed to forget it over several decades.
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Old 25-12-2016, 01:54
Fairyprincess0
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One year i asked my brother for an alan partridge DVD. When i opened it, he'd got me a Michael McIntyre one instead. ...
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Old 25-12-2016, 03:19
Menoetius
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If I don't open it then it remains simultaneously the present I do want and the one I don't want.

What should I do?
Do what I did last year. Write a limerick.

Had a bit of a health scare at the back end of 2015.
A cough I just couldn't shift.
Had a biopsy and a cat scan.
When I went for the scan, I noticed a wall full of thank you letters, poems and the like.
So I chirped up that I liked to pen a poem or two.
The nurse said that I should write one. So I did.
As far as I was concerned, until I got the results of the scan, while I was waiting, I did and didn't have the big C. So I wrote this ....

Schrödinger's Cat Scan

The nurse said I've heard there's a rumour
You excel at the writing of humour
But the results of the scan
Mean I'm no laughing man
And that's thanks to my melon sized tumour

I don't think it's on the wall.
Oh, and obviously, do yours about the socks you didn't want. Or the selection box.
And if it is a selection box, don't use Crunchie at the end of lines 1,2 or 5.
It'll be a bugger to write.
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Old 25-12-2016, 03:56
Menoetius
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You can use Crunchies for lines 3 or 4 ...

I'd rather Nan gave me the pox
Than novelty jumper and socks
Get Mars Bars and Crunchies
My favourite munchies
With two or three more in the box.

Happy Christmas.
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Old 25-12-2016, 05:10
spiney2
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Not so. See my post #11
nope, you're wrong. He was criticising the later ''copenhagen interpretion'', of matrix mechanics, which is logical rubbish, as distinct from his own ''classical'' version of qm which, although limited, isn't.

I've got his biography somewhere, though years since i read it,
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Old 25-12-2016, 05:16
spiney2
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Schrodinger's theory is based on de broglie waves, but heisenberg's is based on spectral series. Despite dirac claiming ''eqivalence'', it's the heisenberg formalism that's actually used.
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Old 25-12-2016, 05:21
zounds
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One year i asked my brother for an alan partridge DVD. When i opened it, he'd got me a Michael McIntyre one instead. ...
Not your fault for not knowing. If you'd known that the box simultaneously contained or didn't contain an Alan Partridge DVD then fair enough opening it. If you'd known that it simultaneously contained or didn't contain a Michael McIntyre DVD you could have burnt it.
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Old 25-12-2016, 10:04
gomezz
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If Schrödinger had been a gambling man he would not have got himself so worked up about comparing the actuality with the potentiality.
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Old 25-12-2016, 20:24
phylo_roadking
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If Schrödinger had been a gambling man he would not have got himself so worked up about comparing the actuality with the potentiality.
And yet....

For a hundred years admirals and war leaders got their knickers in a twist over exactly that See under Alfred Thayer Mahan and his theory of "a fleet in being"...
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Old 25-12-2016, 21:31
Horace Wimp
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The Big Bang Theory has a lot to answer for.
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