NationStates Jolt Archive

Were Schrödinger's exam results decided by the opening of the envelope and a state of both pass and failure before they were perceived?

I would say no, because the questions and their correct answers were known before the exam was sealed in the envelope, and their correctness is not random; of course, there would be questions that the exam-taker would be unsure of, but generally you could tell before you opened it.

Were Schrödinger's exam results decided by the opening of the envelope and a state of both pass and failure before they were perceived?
No, because the information was stored and viewed elsewhere, by another observer.

Would his cat still be neither dead nor alive if unknown to him, the RSPCA had checked up on it?

No, because the correctness of his answers would not be determined by the behavior of quantum particles.

No, because the correctness of his answers would not be determined by the behavior of quantum particles.
Surely it would be possible for the chance collision of thousands of particles onto the ink inside the envelope to change the result from pass to fail, or vice versa?

No, because the correctness of his answers would not be determined by the behavior of quantum particles.Unless it was a physics exam, of course. >_>

*Head Explodes*

Surely it would be possible for the chance collision of thousands of particles onto the ink inside the envelope to change the result from pass to fail, or vice versa?

The professor would know whether or not it was a pass or fail as well, so the chances of that wouldn't actually affect the grade.

What if it were an essay test?

The professor would know whether or not it was a pass or fail as well, so the chances of that wouldn't actually affect the grade.
I think there's a greater possibility of the professor forgetting the grade than the situation I came up with...

Well, if we take the "multiple universe" - which should be called "universal entanglement" - interpretation, the exam result is never "decided", it's just that the particular observer entangles with that particular state of pass/fail. If you observe "pass", congratulations, you've entangled with the "pass" state.

Are there any developments on the path integral, by the way? The last time I checked it was labeled "unproven" and "purely speculative".

I think there's a greater possibility of the professor forgetting the grade than the situation I came up with...

I imagine we'd have to establish the size of the class, the subject matter, and the professor's ability to remember that data. I was assuming it was a smaller class where the professor would know the grades, whereas a lecture hall professor wouldn't be able to do the same.

Possibly. However, he would only have been able to locate the envelope with any certainty if he had little or no idea of its momentum.

I imagine we'd have to establish the size of the class, the subject matter, and the professor's ability to remember that data. I was assuming it was a smaller class where the professor would know the grades, whereas a lecture hall professor wouldn't be able to do the same.
Ok. Schrodinger was at university between 1906 and 1910, when not so many people went to university. Assume 5% of the population of his age group (19 when he started) went to university. The population of the world was about 1.8 billion in 1906 (1 billion in 1804, 2 billion in 1920). His age group would make up, say 0.75% of that, making the number that went to university 0.15% of 1.8 billion. That's 2.7 million. If they were equally split between the world's universities...and I don't have a clue how many there would have been of them...let's say, for the sake of argument until someone comes up with a studied figure, there were 27000. (Heh, see what I've done? :p ) That provides each university with 1000 students. At this time, classics and the arts would have been the dominant subjects, taking up maybe 75% of the intake, leaving 250 students for sciences, maths etc, and medicine. Maybe 50 of each would give a maximum number of students per physics professor (Schrodinger's professor was Prof. Exner). I reckon a competent physics professor would be able to remember the grades of 50 students. But he could forget...