How Knowledge Leads to the Demise of Schrodinger’s Cat Through a Null Measurement (A Quantum Mechanical Measurement in Which There is No Physical Interaction Between the Measuring Instrument and the Entity Measured)

The Schrodinger cat experiment (SCE) is presented. An alteration follows where the LACK of radioactive decay (rd) leads to the demise of the cat instead of the ACT of rd. The lack of rd is a negative (null) measurement (nm) (where there is NO physical interaction between the radioactive material and the Geiger counter). The nm is non-trivial because all knowledge about the radioactive material (rm) is derived from its associated wave function (wf) which itself has no physical existence. The wf is how we make probabilistic predictions regarding systems in quantum mechanics. Before the box in the SCE is opened, the wf for the rm is: psi_rm = 1/√2 [psi_rm does not decay + psi_rm does decay] which leads to the possibility of interference before the cat is observed. As Schrodinger wrote: “The psi_function of the entire system [including rm and cat] would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.” The wf is the foundation for knowledge since the probabilities are derived from the wf and the wf contains all the information concerning a system. This alteration of the SCE emphasizes that the lack of rd in the original SCE is also a nm that leads to the continued life of the cat.