The technology that harnesses quantum physics to perform calculations faster than ever.
Donna Lu
In the 21st century, computers including smartphones are the greatest part of our life. We build the strongest calculators to solve the hardest and longest calculations, but as we keep developing in science and technology the questions we face get harder and thus we need more powerful technology like Quantum Computers.
What is a Quantum computer?
Like Its name, Quantum Computers are machines that use the properties of quantum physics to store data and perform computations. This can be extremely advantageous for certain tasks where they could vastly outperform even our best supercomputers.
Classical computers, which includes smartphones and laptops, encode information in binary “bits” that can either be 0s or 1s. In a quantum computer, the basic unit of memory is a quantum bit or “qubit”.
How Quantum computers Work?
Qubits are made using physical systems, such as the spin of an electron or the orientation of a photon. These systems can be in many different arrangements all at once, a property known as quantum superposition. Qubits can also be inextricably linked together using a phenomenon called quantum entanglement. The result is that a series of qubits can represent different things simultaneously.
For instance, with eight bits a classical computer can represent any numbers between 0 to 255. But eight qubits is enough for a quantum computer to represent every number between 0 to 255 at the same time. A few hundred entangled qubits would be enough to represent more numbers than there are atoms in the universe.
