Uncertainty

A joke making the rounds:
Heisenberg and Schrodinger are on a road trip, when a cop pulls them over. The officer walks up and asks if they know how fast they’re going. Heisenberg replies that they do not, but know with high precision where they are. The cop thinks that’s weird, and begins to search the vehicle.

He opens the trunk and asks, “Did you know you’ve got a dead cat in the trunk?”

Schrodinger says, “Well, *now* we do.”"

4 comments:

E Hines said...

Well, now that the policeman has fixed, instead, the two men's car's velocity, its position has become indeterminate--and so they're elsewhere, free to ride around with a now casually killed cat in their trunk.

Eric Hines

William said...

Would the cat's disposition become indeterminate again if they closed the trunk and continued their drive?

William asks...

Grim said...

Yes, if it had been alive, but not if it was already dead. Seems unfair, doesn't it?

William said...

Fair enough. But if it was "mostly dead" vice "all dead" it would reason that the cat's state is still in question, and how could we Know, not having observed the event directly and with only a superficial investigation to boot?
(With only perfunctory apologies to Miracle Max.)

William sends.