the Schrödinger cat thought experiment

The Schrödinger cat thought experiment illustrates quantum superposition by imagining a cat inside a sealed box with a radioactive atom, a Geiger counter, and poison. If the atom decays, the poison is released, killing the cat; if not, the cat remains alive. Until the box is opened and observed, quantum mechanics suggests the atom is both decayed and not decayed simultaneously, so the cat is both alive and dead. The experiment highlights the weirdness of quantum superposition and how observation affects the state of a system.