The experiment

This cartoon features cameos by the winners of Cook Jesus Day:  Silvia, Julio and Doctor Mapache (“Doctor Raccoon”).

"The opening mechanism will be activated as soon as we exit this room. The decay of a very small radioactive sample will determine whether the cage opens or remains closed. According to the Copenhagen interpretation, the raccoon will then be both free and locked at the same time. The free-raccoon will wander around and eventually make it to the kitchen, drawn in by the smell of the coffee and brownies we'll be having. But beware! What if the system collapses into a locked-raccoon state? Then the raccoon will have never made it to the kitchen for us to see it. The wave function won't have collapsed! PARADOX! Is that possible? There's only one way to know!"

"Were these budget figures necessary for that?"

"This experiment could change our understanding of the universe. We can't afford to skimp on quality of coffee and brownies.