What is Quantum Computing?
By: Bite Of News
Tags: Quantum Computer, Science, Quantum Computing

Just imagine a computer whose memory is exponentially larger than its apparent physical size; a computer that can manipulate an exponential set of input concurrently or you can say a computer that computes in the twilight zone. Quantum computer is like a tanker that breaks off brick wall which thousand of tennis balls are unable to accomplish. Much of the recent century knowledge on consumer electronics & highly advanced technologies is due to & based on man’s growing understanding of Quantum mechanics. What does quantum computing mean? Let’s have a brief discussion over it!

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is the use of quantum-mechanical phenomena like superposition and predicament to perform the calculation. A quantum computer is used to perform this type of calculation and can be implemented either theoretically or physically. Relatively few and simple concepts from quantum mechanics are needed to make quantum computers a possibility. The field of quantum computing is actually a sub-field of quantum information science, including quantum cryptography and quantum communication. A quantum computer had the potential to resemble things that a classical computer could not have. There are many of the challenges that the system we have today will never able to solve. To solve this high level complexity, a new kind of computing is needed.

Then what is the big deal about quantum computing? Take an example of retrieving a thing which is left on the desk of office building having hundreds of offices. To get that in a simple way, you need to walk through the building roaming through every door. A simple computer functions in the same way making its way through long strings of 1’s and 0’s until it arrives at the answer. Now take the case of searching that thing by creating copies of you similar to the rooms in building to peek in all offices. The one who find the thing will remain as real you and other will disappear. Quantum computing are built based on this peculiar reality.

Bits and Qubits

The classical computers which we use everyday uses memory that is made up of bits i.e. either 0 or 1 as on or off. Whatever functionality computer performs, from playing games to sending mails, comes from manipulating those one and zero. A quantum computer is a new type of computer that uses the unusual properties of quantum physics to solve problems that are impossible for regular computers. They do this by using qubits instead of bits. Similar to bits, qubits can represent a one or zero. What makes them special is that a qubit can be one, zero or superposition of both. This means that qubit can be both one and zero at the same time- making quantum computers exponentially more powerful than their conventional computers.

Quantum Computers

Earlier researches have proved that a full blown quantum computer could factor even the largest numbers in seconds, which is an impossible approach for conventional computers. Rather than using 1 & 0 computing that traditional computers use, quantum computer uses superposition, status of matter that can be both 1 & 0 at once. The thing is as you increase the number of qubits, you need to perform all sorts of tweaks and improvements, because the delicate quantum states that are created have to be manipulated, moved and stored without being destroyed. The scalable architecture of quantum computer allows you to think about creating larger qubit computers with relatively low technologies. Quantum computers dramatically outperform classical computers in calculations involving large number of equally possible solutions. Because of their strength at analyzing combinations, quantum computers will most likely to be applied for breaking codes & optimizing complex systems. These are able to accurately model events at the molecular scale, providing a powerful tool for science research.

Though superposition is powerful, mysterious and delicate. But the problem in building fully functioning quantum computers is that qubits must be held in super -cooled, isolated state otherwise they decohere & lose their quantum magic. While quantum computers are successfully created by developers but it is unable to get enough quibits working at the same time to realize their full potential.

Applications of quantum computing

Quantum computing is a best way to solve improbable complex problems which conventional computers can’t achieve. Due to increase in the complexity, need of powerful processors continues to increase and thus we require more computing solutions. Quantum computers have some of the major applications.

Machine Learning: Quantum computers could entrust machine learning by enabling AI programs. Artificial Intelligence is one of the primary applications of quantum computing. AI is used to pull from large datasets of image, video & text. Artificial Intelligence is an ideal candidate for quantum computation. Molecular Modeling: Molecular modeling is another example of using quantum computing. The chemical reactions are quantum in nature as they form highly complicated quantum superposition states. This quantum chemistry is so complicated that only simplest molecules can be analyzed by today’s digital computers. Biomedical Simulations: With the help of quantum computers, we can create, simulate and model molecular structures. Researchers keep on using the quantum computers to solve various puzzles. Cryptography: Quantum computers can perform factoring related to online security which conventional computers find difficult to factor large number into primes. The time required to make code cracking expensive and absurd. It is also being assured that quantum encryption methods being developed using this nature of quantum computing. Weather Forecasting: A classical computer takes time to perform weather analysis than it takes actual weather to unfold. Quantum computers are able to help in building better climate models that can provide more intuition into how humans are impacting the environment. These models are built on our future estimates of climate and we can determine which steps needs to be taken to prevent disasters.

Quantum computing has endless applications. From machine learning to optimization to biomedical and chemical simulations, all these could help to land more discoveries and research new medical treatments in record time.