Quantum Computers – Using Quantum Physics for Unparalleled Computing Power

If you’re familiar with computers, you’ll be aware that they operate using logic, which is a set of rules in which binary inputs will define binary outputs.

As you’ll have probably heard before, computing is just 1s and 0s, with 1 being “on” and 0 being “off” states for tiny switches that will decide an output of 1 or 0.

When combined with increasing complexity, these “switches” or logic gates can create all the computational complexity that we see today.

The 1s and 0s are also known as bits and the smallest amount of data that a computer needs to operate.

What Is Quantum Computing?

Quantum computing doesn’t use bits but instead uses something called quantum bits or qubits. Qubits can also have 1s and 0s as their states like bits, but they can also have another state that’s mixed and known as superposition, where they’re both a 1 and a 0 simultaneously, which makes all the difference in quantum computing.

While bits only allow one state at a time, quantum computing can represent multiple states at the same time through superposition, allowing for your computing power to grow exponentially with the power of qubits.

How Does Quantum Computing Work?

A qubit is anything that can achieve quantum superposition between two states; normally the nucleus of an atom and its “spin”.

Without going too much into quantum physics, this phenomenon has been likened to spinning coins and then banging the table to see which side they fall on. As they spin, they’re in the state of “superposition”, neither heads nor tails.

However, when it comes to reading the state of them, you stop them spinning. While stopping coins spinning on a table is simply done and easily read, for quantum computing, you need a machine that can hold the qubits in a superposition and stop anything else from “banging on the table” by shielding the quantum states.

When a qubit loses its state of superposition by becoming part of a measured system, through something known as “decoherence”, it becomes either a 1 or a 0. The coin has fallen and is either heads or tails. If we know what we’re looking for and have some clever maths by our side, we can use these results to get the answers we’re looking for in computations that would have otherwise taken exponentially longer.