AaS! 151: How Do Quantum Computers Work?

Ask a Spaceman!

Paul M. Sutter

Astrophysics, Science, Cosmos, Holes, Black, Astronomy, Natural Sciences, Universe, Cosmology, Space, Physics

4.8 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What makes quantum computers so powerful? What kinds of problems can they solve? How do we actually build one? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman!

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Thanks to Cathy Rinella for editing.

Hosted by Paul M. Sutter, astrophysicist and the one and only Agent to the Stars (http://www.pmsutter.com).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Let's say you've got a mouse running around your house, and it's so annoying.
0:15.5	You can hear it skittering in the night.
0:18.3	There are little holes in your food.
0:20.3	You're pretty sure you didn't eat all of the
0:22.1	cheese, it's, it's, it's making your life a living nightmare. You want to catch that mouse.
0:29.9	So you go out and buy a cat and it's a normal, everyday, perfectly functional, classical
0:35.8	cat, and you take the cat home and you wait.
0:39.2	How does the cat find the mouse?
0:41.7	Well, it searches room to room, just one room at a time.
0:45.0	It goes in the living room, looks around, smells around as whatever cats do.
0:49.1	Doesn't find the mouse.
0:50.4	Goes to the bathroom.
0:51.7	Looks around.
0:52.7	No mouse.
0:53.3	Goes to the kitchen.
0:55.2	Looks around. No mouse. goes to the kitchen, looks around, no mouse,
0:59.2	just this very procedural approach to finding mice.
1:00.8	It's a very slow process.
1:09.0	You have no idea where the mouse actually is, and neither does the cat, so it has to search room after room one at a time. And so you're patient. You wait a
1:16.0	night, no mouse. You wait another night, no mouse. You wait like a week and there's still no mouse.
1:25.3	So, this is taking too long.
1:30.3	This cat is just way too slow.
	...

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