Quantum mechanic
Q quantum mechanic 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 9 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d4 teleport |
| Base level | 7 |
| Base experience | 92 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 3 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Average |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 20 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A quantum mechanic:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1859 |
A quantum mechanic is a monster with an attack that causes its target to teleport when it hits. The teleport is subject to magic cancellation. It follows the usual rules of self-teleportation, being disallowed on non-teleport levels, and permitting you to use teleport control.
Eating a quantum mechanic corpse will toggle intrinsic speed. Quantum mechanics are not considered human (or any other playable race for that matter) so you won't suffer the effects of cannibalism.
The quantum mechanic is the only member of the Q quantum mechanic monster class
Schroedinger's Cat
There is a 5% chance that a quantum mechanic carries a large box[1]. Upon opening the box, a housecat named "Schroedinger's Cat" is generated and has a 50% chance of being dead and a 50% chance of being alive. The state of the cat is not determined until the box is opened. There is nothing special about this cat; it is just a silly physics joke. In fact, before opening, the large box will be empty in term of gameplay.
Messages
- "Your position suddenly seems very uncertain!"
- A quantum mechanic hit you and you attempted to teleport.
- "Your velocity suddenly seems very uncertain!"
- You ate a quantum mechanic corpse and your intrinsic speed is about to be toggled.
- "You seem slower."
- Your intrinsic speed was toggled off.
- "You seem faster."
- Your intrinsic speed was toggled on.
Strategy
Eating a Quantum Mechanic corpse is a useful way to gain the speed intrinsic. If you already have intrinsic speed, however, you will lose it, so be careful!
Origin
This monster's name is a play on words with "Quantum Mechanics", a branch of physics. The messages that accompany the monster's teleporting attack and the toggling of intrinsic speed are jokes based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that measuring the position of a particle makes its velocity more uncertain, and vice versa. Toggling the speed intrinsic could also be a reference to the transitions that occur between discrete energy levels in quantum mechanics.
Schrödinger's cat is a famous thought experiment in quantum mechanics involving imagining locking a cat in a box with a mechanism that has a 50% chance of killing the cat, depending upon the final state of a quantum system, for example whether an unstable nucleus has decayed within a certain time. The orthodox Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics asserts that the cat in the box is in a superposition of possible outcomes, in half of which the cat is dead, and half of which it is alive. Only when the box is opened and "observed" does the quantum wavefunction collapse, and the fate of the cat become determined. Schrödinger asserted that this was absurd, and thus so was the Copenhagen interpretation. Physicists are still divided on this matter. Note that this was a thought experiment; no actual cats were killed, or even half-killed.
Encyclopedia entry
These creatures are not native to this universe; they seem to have strangely derived powers, and unknown motives.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
