What is Schrodinger's cat?

Schrodinger was a famous scientist of his time. He is known for his Schrodinger's wave equation that describes the behavior of a particle in one dimension and particle in three dimension box.

He basically was of the view that an electron is a particle but unlike the real world things, it has the ability to be present at more than one places at the same time. He and many other scientists have had the opinion that in quantum physics the general laws of macroscopic bodies fail.

For example, it is impossible for a man to be available in two cities at the same time but an electron, on the other hand, has the power to be available at two or more places at the same time, as long as you are not observing it. But when you observe it, it appears to you at only one of the places.

To explain this confusing phenomenon, he used a cat as an example. He said that "Suppose you put a cat in a box that has a poisonous chemical in it and close the box, wait for some time and then you wonder whether the cat is dead or alive. What you have in your mind are two parallel states. the cat can be in any of these to possible states but when you will open the box, the cat will either be alive or dead. The cat cannot be in the two states at the same time when you see her but when you didn't see her she was in two states. The same holds true for an electron."

So what an electron does, if you do not observe it, it exists in plenty of states at the same time and when you observe it via X-rays or some other method it confines it to one of these states.