Schrodinger's lolcat

    Credit to Justin Wick for the idea, and Kevin Steele for the photo.

    Update I had no idea this thing would get so much press. T-shirts may or may not be coming soon. (pending licensing discussion)

    Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

    Comments and faves

    1. ★

      chrisholland, andreavallejos, rewl, R.B. Boyer, and 220 other people added this photo to their favorites.

    2. Cirne (61 months ago | reply)

      That is cool!

      LOLing too small for the visible eye.

    3. Tony Lupo (61 months ago | reply)

      Ha hahahahaaha

    4. the twilite kid (61 months ago | reply)

      Very clever. Where's the cyanide? :)

    5. Nick Douglas (61 months ago | reply)

      Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Lolgeeks, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

    6. Spin Martin (61 months ago | reply)

      Oh for the love of LOLGOD

    7. rewl (61 months ago | reply)

      i think i just peed my pants.

    8. whirligigfarmkid (61 months ago | reply)

      FWIW - I thought I'd add my alternate caption:

      IM IN UR BOX

      AMBIGUOUS8N UR HAIZGR ST8

      KTHXBAI

      ORNOT

    9. benno37 (61 months ago | reply)

      Another Schrodinger's lolcat.

    10. virtualcourtney (61 months ago | reply)

      I love this. Love!

    11. ev1lk1tt3n (61 months ago | reply)

      ROTFLMFAO...... wow. Truthfully, I didn't really find the whole LOLcat thing all that funny..... but this is gdamn hilarious. :)

      ...... and now to clean the coffee out of my keyboard, and blow my nose..........

    12. uhujazz (61 months ago | reply)

      Same here, this is the first one I've laughed at. I'm still laughing! Brilliant.

    13. jauderho (61 months ago | reply)

      Awesome!!!

      Now would someone be willing to LOLcat Nori (noncommercial permission granted for this purpose only)?

      Crouching Tiger

      Hrmmmm...

    14. ♥ Nat hamlin (61 months ago | reply)

      ROTFL

      ...maybe

    15. ♥ Nat hamlin (61 months ago | reply)

      I think the T should have the same photo but with a dead cat on reverse side.

      ps I LUV KITTEHS!!! LOL
      THAT's Y I NEVAH LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
      LULZ...

    16. Debbie G (61 months ago | reply)

      I'M IN UR PHOTOSTREAM ROTFL, RLY.

      --
      Seen in your archives. (?)

    17. lilith penguin (61 months ago | reply)

      I find it funny that Scientific American's website is even linking here.

      --
      Seen on your photo stream. (?)

    18. Mark Interrante (aka pinhole) (61 months ago | reply)

      LOL

    19. kat cruickshank (61 months ago | reply)

      Schrödinger's lolcatz, v. 2.x(?)!!!11!!

    20. puck-man (61 months ago | reply)

      So this had me laughing my ass off, guys in the office looked and were confused, I explained why it was and now they wont talk to me.

    21. Carolyn C. (60 months ago | reply)

      This is a pretty damn specific joke...but LOL-worthy!

    22. 'ju:femaiz (60 months ago | reply)

      absolutely gold!

      --
      http://geekfriendly.org/blog/ (?)

    23. smg55039 (59 months ago | reply)

      Geek humor is the best humor.

    24. puck-man (59 months ago | reply)

      This is STILL funny, seen it several times now.

    25. Laserone ☆ Lauren (58 months ago | reply)

      Love it!

    26. kinstshaw (58 months ago | reply)

      This is my favourite lolcat EVER.

    27. Rob Burke (58 months ago | reply)

      Please make t-shirts!

    28. ♥ Nat hamlin (58 months ago | reply)

      Dear Cecil:

      Cecil, you're my final hope
      Of finding out the true Straight Dope
      For I have been reading of Schroedinger's cat
      But none of my cats are at all like that.
      This unusual animal (so it is said)
      Is simultaneously live and dead!
      What I don't understand is just why he
      Can't be one or other, unquestionably.
      My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
      In one I'm enlightened, the other I ain't.
      If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way
      And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.
      But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
      Then I will and won't see you in Schroedinger's zoo.
      --Randy F., Chicago

      Dear Randy:

      Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!
      Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!
      (Not bad, eh? Don't worry. This part of the verse
      Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)
      Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented
      By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented.
      What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic,
      No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.
      Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles
      Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.
      If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance
      Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!
      No sweat, though--my theory permits us to judge
      Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was."
      Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck
      The comforting linkage of cause and effect.
      E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried
      To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.
      Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat,
      And inside a tube we have put that cat at--
      Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,
      A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes
      (Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em,
      One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom
      Or atom--whatever--but when it emits,
      A trigger device blasts the vial into bits
      Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime
      Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.
      The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is
      Our pussy still purring--or pushing up daisies?
      Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't
      But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't.
      Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),
      Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.
      To some this may seem a ridiculous split,
      But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough @#&!
      We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho':
      There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
      Shine light on electrons--you'll cause them to swerve.
      The act of observing disturbs the observed--
      Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing
      To see if a particle's moving or resting
      Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!
      We know probability--certainty, never.'
      The effect of this notion? I very much fear
      'Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.
      Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,
      "We've just flipped a coin and we've learned he's a corpse."'
      So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, "You're nuts.
      God doesn't play dice with the universe, putz.
      I'll prove it!" he said, and the Lord knows he tried--
      In vain--until fin'ly he more or less died.
      Win spoke at the funeral: "Listen, dear friends,
      Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends.
      Though he doubted my theory, I'll say of this saint:
      Ten-to-one he's in heaven--but five bucks says he ain't."

      --CECIL ADAMS

    29. anomalous4 (56 months ago | reply)

      YA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AAAAAAAAAY this is my fave lolcat ever!

      I love the poetry too.

    30. anomalous4 (56 months ago | reply)

      Hi, I'm an admin for a group called LOLscience, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

    31. susurrus_sparks (55 months ago | reply)

      Invitation!
      100+ Favorites: Cats

      --
      Seen in LOLscience (?)

    32. DubSnipe (54 months ago | reply)

      I used your picture for my blog:

      I'ma here to tell you bout the Schrödinger's cat
      as soon as he was born he was the bastard of the pack
      as crazy as it seems, it's really hard to explain
      but ended getting half-killed by Dr. Insane

      Schrödinger confused quantum physics with style
      so let me break it down so you can make this worthwhile
      he quickly got involved in this big science dispute
      the order of the world, became his greatest pursuit

      After many letters to Al Einstein, his ally
      they noticed that the Copenhagen crew was, then so high
      'cause everything to them was uncertain, every particle
      and such a dope thought, at the time became radical

      Erwin came up, with this idea to mock
      all those cocky bastards with their atoms that rock
      described by probability, not just move and bounce
      but seem to cross slits at both locations at once

      He said 'Yo bitches, your ideas are jokes
      so what if you just get Poor Kitty in the box
      with acid at his face so if we're done
      at least we get to see the cute pussy get gone'

      Activate it with this funky radioactive stuff
      with an atom that might equally decay or not
      Now this reminds me of the guy in my refrigerator
      turning on and off the light, more sooner than later

      As the atom in the system is there and not
      will the machine get to kill Poor Kitty at the spot?
      he chuckles at Bohr and Heisenberg, says 'both'
      he's dead and alive, just too much for this plot

      So it sounds sort of stupid, sorry to disappoint
      Poor Kitty's good and gone till you see him, that's the point
      you see him live an' kickin and you ask 'but why?'
      he'll look you in the eye and say 'kthxbai'.

    33. invisibleplanet (54 months ago | reply)

      i'd have closed the box lid and written "n/one cat" on the side :)

    34. dcjensen (51 months ago | reply)

      Several months ago I used your creation and a quick bit of photoshop to create a LiveJournal Icon for my girlfriend.

      I hope you do not mind. It makes her happy.

    35. dantekgeek (51 months ago | reply)

      @dcjensen - Cool! I dig it.

    36. ehop1088 (50 months ago | reply)

      I love it!! Thank you. :)

    37. mattbaron (47 months ago | reply)

      I definitely feel like a nerd for getting this. At least I see I'm in good company.

    38. Rebecca Burch (47 months ago | reply)

      Hahahahahaaaa!!!! Printing this for Physics teacher hubby to hang in his lab.

    39. stephen08983 (37 months ago | reply)

      Please make a t-shirt of this!

    40. D. L. Yonge-Mallo (34 months ago | reply)

      I had the same idea. My cat's name is Heisenberg, making his participation in the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment more (in)appropriate somehow.

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlyongemallo/382 8523166/

    41. Terss (27 months ago | reply)

      Hi! I'm the Admin for For The Love Of Science! Group and I would love for this photo to be added! Please join if you are interested, thanks! :)

    42. Martin LaBar (27 months ago | reply)

      Good illustration of Schrödinger's cat!

    43. El Yair (7 months ago | reply)

      Nice, funny as hell!!!

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