Copenhagen interpretation
Observation collapses superposition
The Copenhagen interpretation is the standard framework for understanding quantum mechanics, developed in the 1920s by physicists including Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.
It holds that quantum systems exist in superposition of all possible states until observed, at which point the wave function "collapses" to a single definite outcome.
The interpretation treats the mathematical formalism as a tool for predicting measurements rather than describing an underlying reality, famously prompting debates about whether unobserved particles have definite properties at all.
- observer effectWatching something changes it
- superpositionCoexisting in multiple states
- dead or aliveIn any vital state
- wave functionQuantum system's complete description
- measurement problemWhy observation affects outcomes
complementarity · hidden variables · uncertainty principle · Niels Bohr · Schrödinger's cat · indeterminacy · quantum mechanics · quantum leap · wave · decoherence · quantum state · positivism · instrumentalism · entanglement · Bohr · collapse · Einstein · particle
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- Quantum Mechanicssuperposition, entanglement, wave function, uncertainty principle, Schrodinger equation
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- Quantum Philosophymeasurement problem, superposition, hidden variables, decoherence, complementarity
- Schrödingerwave function, superposition, quantum mechanics, quantum theory, quantum state
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