Cats are very clearly crucial to the very fabric of our reality. In 1935, Austrian physicist Edwin Schrödinger demonstrated the idea of quantum superposition using the analogy of a cat that’s both dead and alive—at least, until it’s measured. However, the famous experiment known as Schrödinger’s cat isn’t the only feline-themed property of quantum mechanics.
Meet the Cheshire cat paradox.
Named after the troublesome cat in Alice in Wonderland who’s known for his disturbing smile and frequent disappearing acts, the Cheshire cat paradox pertains to the strange (and controversial) quantum quirk that properties of a subatomic particle (in this case, a neutron) can be separated from the particle’s mass—similar to how the Cheshire cat disappears and leaves only its unsettling grin behind.
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