Trying to get my head round quantum computers

rubberduck

rubberduck

rubberduck

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Have watched some youtube vids etc on this and think I get the general gist that the superposition state of qubits gives the computer the opportunity to exist in an exponetially increasing number of states simultaneously as more qubits are added. Conversely, a conventional computer can only exist in one state at once but it can obviously cycle through states incredibly quickly (number crunching). What I do not understand is how you use use these superposition states in a beneficial way in terms of an algorithm to solve the optimisation and modelling problems that quantum computers are supposed to be able to tackle. Can someone explain it in as simple terms as possible?
 
and that's how we use use these superposition states in a beneficial way in terms of an algorithm to solve the optimisation and modelling problems that quantum computers can provide.
 
So post #2 is a superposition of trolling and serious answer? Thanks cupcake!

Edit - upon inspecting the quantum field state of post 2 it's wavefunction collapsed and upon analysis of the corresponding eigenvectors I determined it was troll.

/reported
 
Computers work the laws of mathematics ones and zeros.

Quantum computers work by the laws of physics so technically they know the answer before you have switched it on.
 
rubberduck said:
So post #2 is a superposition of trolling and serious answer? Thanks cupcake!

Edit - upon inspecting the quantum field state of post 2 it's wavefunction collapsed and upon analysis of the corresponding eigenvectors I determined it was troll.

/reported
Click to expand...

magnolia has 2 possible states- trolling and not trolling, it is not possible to determine which is which.
 
For any chance of understanding it you need to understand what a wavefunction is (or rather what it is attempting to represent).

Qubits are a bit misleading - if you try to understand them first as the approach into understanding the system it will likely give you the wrong impression.
 
rubberduck said:
Have watched some youtube vids etc on this and think I get the general gist that the superposition state of qubits gives the computer the opportunity to exist in an exponetially increasing number of states simultaneously as more qubits are added. Conversely, a conventional computer can only exist in one state at once but it can obviously cycle through states incredibly quickly (number crunching). What I do not understand is how you use use these superposition states in a beneficial way in terms of an algorithm to solve the optimisation and modelling problems that quantum computers are supposed to be able to tackle. Can someone explain it in as simple terms as possible?
Click to expand...

It just lets you calculate, or I should say estimate multiple operations at the same time. The "best" one gets output as classical info.

Imagine person A walking down a trail. They want to reach a destination at the end of the trail. The trail ahead forks in to two more trails, left and right. You have 1 second to chose one of them and you can't change your mind. That's a normal 1/0 computer operation.

Now Imagine person B on the same trail. Except they have a time freezing machine! They can now explore both forks of the trail for a short distance, at the same relative time, find out how those new trails intersect with other trails in the system, then then pick the one with the best probability of optimal future trail entropy (and hence efficiency). Now they are allowed to return to the fork, start time again and decide which fork to take for real. This all happens in the same 1 second period person A took. That's quantum computing. The exploration of both trails at the same time is a qbit. Technically the hiker is on both of them until he meets a new fork and has to decide which one he's actually on so he can assess the next fork. It's all wave functions and probabilities until you pass it back to the normal computer.

Interesting to note that they do literally freeze quantum computer chips to maintain the entanglements (the trail explorations).
 
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The question everyone want to know.. when will these be ready for the domestic market?

now I know these things are big, complex and require crazy low cooling to work at all so will be a long long way off so are we talking 20 30 40+ years.. or never? make your predictions now!
 
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