Numb3rs (TV Series)

Identity Crisis (2005)

Judd Hirsch: Alan Eppes

Quotes 

• [Charlie is watching from the window as Don play basketball in their driveway, while Larry and Alan eat dinner behind him] 

  Charlie Eppes : Has he been out there all night?

  [He leaves the window to sit at the table] 

  Alan Eppes : Well, on the bright side, it seems like Don's taken up an interest in sports again.

  Charlie Eppes : It's like the evidence proves him right and wrong at the same time.

  Dr. Larry Fleinhardt : Oh, yeah, the old paradox of Schrodinger's cat.

  Alan Eppes : Is that the Persian that keeps hiding out in our garage?

  Charlie Eppes : Mm-mm. It's an intellectual exercise.

  Alan Eppes : I knew that.

  Dr. Larry Fleinhardt : Okay, this is vastly simplified. Theres a cat in a box. 50/50 chance it's been poisoned, but now here's the paradox. Until such time as we can open the box, and observe the cat, for that time, that cat is both alive and dead.

  Charlie Eppes : Larry, I-I-I fail to see the analogy, though. I mean, in reality, Don can't be both right and wrong at the same time.

  Alan Eppes : Well of course not. I mean, if a man is both right and wrong, then something's gotta be wrong.

  Dr. Larry Fleinhardt : [rubs his eyes]  Nah. The truth about Schrodinger's cat is that the question itself is meaningless - until we look inside the box.