Therefore, after one hour there were two possible events: that the atom had not emitted an alpha particle, or that, on the contrary, it had. The result of the previous thing would determine that the cat of inside the box was alive, or was dead, fact that we can only know opening the box and checking the state of the cat. This situation, explained with the laws of quantum mechanics, is described as follows:
The cat is an extremely complex wave function, which is the result of the superposition of two states combined with the same probability that it happens (that the cat lives, or that the cat dies). Therefore, if we apply quantum formalism, the cat would be both dead and alive, treating two indistinguishable states. The instantaneous response that this experiment provokes is to say that opening the box we can know what has happened, but by doing this, the observer interacts with the system, altering it and breaking the superposition of states. Therefore, without opening the box, to avoid this superposition of states, the cat will be alive and dead at the same time. This superposition of states is a consequence of the undulatory nature of matter and allows to explain the behavior of elementary particles and atoms.