schrodinger's cat

     If you watch "The Big Bang", you may have heard the characters discussing "Schrodinger's cat", a standard philosophical problem. Schrodinger's cat is supposedly sealed in a box, and we cannot know if it is alive or dead unless we open the box. The cat, while in the box, is purported to be both alive and dead--philosophically, it exists in two mutually exclusive states at the same time.
     Schrodinger's cat does not exist in two mutually exclusive states at the same time. It is not alive and dead--it is alive or dead. We thus have demonstrated to us the philosophical principle of uncertainty--we do not know, and cannot know, whether the cat is alive or dead--unless we open the box.