Together with my collegue Walter, we attended a lecture on Quantum computers at the University of Maastricht (Studium Generale). Professor Lieven Vandersypen from the University of Delft (Netherlands) explained how it works and what we can expect from it in the near future.
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| Selfie with Prof. dr. Lieven Vandersypen |
Some background:
Imagine you have a toy that can spin in two ways, either up or down. This toy is like a classical computer bit, which can be either 0 or 1. Now imagine you have a different toy that can spin in multiple directions at once, like a top that can spin in many directions at the same time. This toy is like a qubit in a quantum computer.
A qubit is a tiny particle that can exist in multiple states at the same time. It's like a spinning top that can spin in many directions at once, which means it can do many things at the same time. This is called superposition. Qubits can also be linked together in a special way called entanglement, which means that they can communicate with each other instantly, no matter how far apart they are.
This might sound strange and impossible, but it's all thanks to the strange rules of quantum mechanics. Quantum computers are still very new and scientists are still figuring out how to use them, but they have the potential to be much more powerful than classical computers, because they can do many things at the same time. So in the future, we might use quantum computers to solve very difficult problems that classical computers can't handle, like finding new medicines or understanding how atoms work.
Quantum computers represent a major breakthrough in the field of computing. Unlike classical computers that use bits that can only exist in a state of 0 or 1, quantum computers use qubits that can exist in multiple states simultaneously, allowing for exponential growth in computing power. This has the potential to revolutionize fields like cryptography, where quantum computers can easily break existing encryption methods, and materials science, where they can simulate the behavior of complex materials with unprecedented accuracy.
