Quantum superposition the eigenvector corresponding to the measured eigenvalue. It is natural to ask why ordinary everyday objects and events do not seem to display quantum mechanical features such as superposition. Indeed, this is sometimes regarded as "mysterious", for instance by Richard Feynman. In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger devised a well-known thought experiment, now known as Schrödinger's cat, which highlighted this dissonance between quantum mechanics and classical physics. One modern view is that this mystery is explained by quantum decoherence. A macroscopic system (such as a cat) may evolve over time into a superposition of classically distinct quantum states (such as "alive" and
Expectation value (quantum mechanics) A particularly simple case arises when formula_1 is a projection, and thus has only the eigenvalues 0 and 1. This physically corresponds to a "yes-no" type of experiment. In this case, the expectation value is the probability that the experiment results in "1", and it can be computed as (3) formula_24. In quantum theory, also operators with non-discrete spectrum are in use, such as the position operator formula_25 in quantum mechanics. This operator does not have eigenvalues, but has a completely continuous spectrum. In this case, the vector formula_11 can be written as a complex-valued function formula_27 on the spectrum