Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment in which a cat sealed in a box is linked to a radioactive atom that may or may not decay. If the atom decays, a poison is released and the cat dies, so quantum mechanics seems to leave the cat both alive and dead until the box is opened. Erwin Schrödinger devised it in 1935 in discussion with Albert Einstein, to criticise the views of Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. It is not meant as a real experiment on a cat. Experiments have shown that very small objects can exist in superposition, but making an object as large as a cat do so would be extremely hard.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.