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Can someone explain quantum computing to me?

Dissipate

Dissipate

Diamond Member
Can someone explain quantum computing to me? I know almost nothing about physics although I do know some math. I don't really understand the Wikipedia article or any of the other google links I've visted. I can't quite understand how this whole Qubit thing works.

In other words, suppose you have two 3 qubit registers and you want to perform a 2's complement addition on those (throwing away any extra carries). How does that work?
 
If you really want to be confused, look for that cnn article a couple days ago about the quantum computer that can solve problems while it is off. 😕 I am right there with you. I have no clue about this stuff. It is basically so new it hasn't really propagated to general textbooks so I didn't get to pick any of it up in grad school last year.

We might get a better response if we took this to HT though.
 
I can't claim to understand quantum computing and I'm pretty sure the researchers working on it don't understand it either. If you want to get an idea of what quantum effects are all about though, look up the young double slit experiment with electrons, it was recently voted the world's most beautiful experiment.

 
Originally posted by: Reel
If you really want to be confused, look for that cnn article a couple days ago about the quantum computer that can solve problems while it is off. 😕 I am right there with you. I have no clue about this stuff. It is basically so new it hasn't really propagated to general textbooks so I didn't get to pick any of it up in grad school last year.

We might get a better response if we took this to HT though.
Click to expand...

Is that the same one where they got a result without the computer actually running the algorithm?

Linky

Aside from the fact that I have no idea how these 'qubits' compute anything, I don't understand how the results are acquired. Supposedly when you 'measure' the states of the qubits you get a random answer and you have to keep measuring??

This is the most bizarre crap I have ever read.
 
I had a conversation on this topic with a professor who wrote his doctorate thesis on supercomputing theory and I still don't really understand it.
 
I remember reading a lot about this and somewhat understanding it, but I don't really remember the details now but it has something to do with quantum states and superpositions...
Supposedly a quantum computer with enough registers could render any and all current encryption useless as it could calculate the key, and every other possible key, instantly. At least that's my understanding, which isn't very good.
 
Originally posted by: everman
I remember reading a lot about this and somewhat understanding it, but I don't really remember the details now but it has something to do with quantum states and superpositions...
Supposedly a quantum computer with enough registers could render any and all current encryption useless as it could calculate the key, and every other possible key, instantly. At least that's my understanding, which isn't very good.
Click to expand...

Can you at least explain how one stores and retrieves data from a single qbit? That's where the confusion comes in for me. Hence, I do not understand how qbits are exponentially better than classical bits.
 
Originally posted by: Dissipate
Originally posted by: everman
I remember reading a lot about this and somewhat understanding it, but I don't really remember the details now but it has something to do with quantum states and superpositions...
Supposedly a quantum computer with enough registers could render any and all current encryption useless as it could calculate the key, and every other possible key, instantly. At least that's my understanding, which isn't very good.
Click to expand...

Can you at least explain how one stores and retrieves data from a single qbit? That's where the confusion comes in for me. Hence, I do not understand how qbits are exponentially better than classical bits.
Click to expand...

Well as I recall, it has to do with the state of the atom. And now I'll rip off some stuff from Wikipedia... Your computer uses bits, where each bit holds either a one or a zero. A quantum computer maintains a set of qubits. A qubit can hold a one, or a zero, or a superposition of these. Qubits for a quantum computer can be implemented using particles with two spin states: "up" and "down".

And what I recall is that they can be both at the same time, or something like that...quantum physics is cool 😀

This also allows it to do things infeasible with regular computers, like factoring very large numbers really quickly, thus breaking encryption, and doing lots of other cool stuff.


I'm not sure how accurate this is, hopefully someone will correct my errors. are you more confused now? 😀 😛
 
Originally posted by: everman

Well as I recall, it has to do with the state of the atom. And now I'll rip off some stuff from Wikipedia... Your computer uses bits, where each bit holds either a one or a zero. A quantum computer maintains a set of qubits. A qubit can hold a one, or a zero, or a superposition of these. Qubits for a quantum computer can be implemented using particles with two spin states: "up" and "down".

And what I recall is that they can be both at the same time, or something like that...quantum physics is cool 😀

This also allows it to do things infeasible with regular computers, like factoring very large numbers really quickly, thus breaking encryption, and doing lots of other cool stuff.


I'm not sure how accurate this is, hopefully someone will correct my errors. are you more confused now? 😀 😛
Click to expand...

I know that, but I don't understand how information is stored in a single qubit. Suppose I have a qubit and I want to store the value 1. Well if it is in both the state 0 and 1 at the same time, how does that help me? I need the 1 value. Could I store a 0 in that qubit for one task and a 1 for another task and retrieve the data for either task in different ways?
 
Originally posted by: Dissipate
I know that, but I don't understand how information is stored in a single qubit. Suppose I have a qubit and I want to store the value 1. Well if it is in both the state 0 and 1 at the same time, how does that help me? I need the 1 value. Could I store a 0 in that qubit for one task and a 1 for another task and retrieve the data for either task in different ways?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure how data storage works. I've read a few things about some breakthroughs and such but nothing that I really understand. One of the interesting thins is that as soon as you observe the state of a particle, it supposedly changes. So I guess we can store data, but getting it was tricky until some methods were developed. I think you need to do more research because not too many people besides the researchers seem to understand this stuff 🙂
 
Originally posted by: everman
Originally posted by: Dissipate
I know that, but I don't understand how information is stored in a single qubit. Suppose I have a qubit and I want to store the value 1. Well if it is in both the state 0 and 1 at the same time, how does that help me? I need the 1 value. Could I store a 0 in that qubit for one task and a 1 for another task and retrieve the data for either task in different ways?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure how data storage works. I've read a few things about some breakthroughs and such but nothing that I really understand. One of the interesting thins is that as soon as you observe the state of a particle, it supposedly changes. So I guess we can store data, but getting it was tricky until some methods were developed. I think you need to do more research because not too many people besides the researchers seem to understand this stuff 🙂
Click to expand...

I know. There is some crazy math/physics involved with this stuff. I'm just trying to understand it on an extremely rudimentary level, but even that is proving difficult.
 
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