PBS Space Time

tv show

poster for PBS Space Time

409 total episodes

-

12 seasons

First Aired February 11, 2015

Overview

Space Time explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth.

How Do Quantum States Manifest In The Classical World? poster unavailable

How Do Quantum States Manifest In The Classical World?

Season 2020 - Episode 10 - 0h 20m

Air Date

March 16, 2020

Overview

In quantum world things are routinely in multiple states at once - what we call a “superposition” of states. But in the classical world of large scales, things are either this or that. The famous thought experiment is Schrodinger’s cat - in which a cat is in an opaque box with a vial of deadly poison that’s released on the radioactive decay of an atom. Quantum mechanics tells us that the atom’s wavefunction can be in a superposition of states - simultaneously decayed or not decayed. So is the cat’s wavefunction also in a superposition of both dead and alive.