Schrödinger’s cat neither lived nor died, it did both, at the same time, forever existing in a superposition of states.
If I remember right, there was some kind of infernal contrivance which released poison if a particular radioactive atom decayed. It was a thought experiment offered as an illustration of the weirdness of the tiny quantum world, when applied to the macroscopic world in which we all live.
The particle in question had been interacted with another kept in the lab, but in accordance with the quantum principle of entanglement, neither existed in any particular state, ie their wave function was ‘smeared’ until this attribute - called Psi - collapses into a definite state on observation. So you never know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box and look. So until you do, it’s both.
Weird eh?
That’s as far as I understand it. I’m no physicist: I was having trouble getting volt drop calcs right this morning!
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