'It's very powerful': The promise and potential of quantum computers
TAMPA, Fla. - Quantum computers are still in development, but the early developments show how this emerging technology can transform our world in ways we can’t even fully predict.
"Honestly, they're not 100% sure what exactly they're going to be able to use it for yet except that it’s very powerful and can generate very complex numbers," said Tom’s Hardware Editor Tom Freedman.
To understand what a quantum computer is and how it works, let’s start with traditional computers.
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The computers we use today work by transmitting and receiving rapid pulses of electricity. Those electrical pulses carry intricate codes — in a string of zeroes and ones that flow in and out of the chips (or brains) of our computers.
The chips coordinate, interpret and transmit the codes to our monitors to form images, to apps to perform calculations, etc.
A quantum computer uses subatomic particles within tiny circuits called Qubits, and those particles or Qubits that are entangled (or linked together), so they connect and function in tandem. And as strange as it sounds — as we learned from the laws of quantum mechanics — those subatomic particles are also in different positions at the same time.
"When you have a traditional computer, it’s on or off. It uses these things called bits: 1-0, on-off, yes-no," Freedman noted. "Quantum computing is both on and off at the same time. It’s this weird head space. They'll stack these things called cubits together. And in really cold rooms, they can use them to measure multiple values at once using quantum mechanics."
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In other words, a Qubit can multitask in ways a traditional computer cannot.
Scientists hope these exponentially faster and more powerful Qubits could give us precise times and locations of natural disasters, develop far more advanced medicine, solve our traffic woes, help us take the next giant leaps in space and help us reign in the effects of climate change.