A beginner’s guide to quantum computing | Explained Premium

Discover the basics and potential of quantum computing, from qubits to quantum supremacy, in this insightful overview.

Over the last decade or so, quantum computing has become the talk of computer town. Their potential to solve complex problems much faster than classical computers is an intriguing proposition that could benefit, if not transform, several industries.

The working of a quantum computer is based on the principles of quantum mechanics, an area of physics that deals with the smallest particles in the universe.

Physicist Richard Feynman proposed the idea of developing a computer to simulate quantum systems in 1982. He discussed the idea of a universal computer that could simulate all physics — both quantum and classical. Researchers realised classical computers, the computers of today, would struggle with the complexity of quantum systems and thus the idea of a quantum computer was born.

Since then, scientists have made significant progress in quantum computing.

Classical computers work on the principles of classical physics. Their fundamental computing unit is the bit: each bit represents one piece of information with two possible values, 0 or 1. It is possible to represent all types of information as a combination of 0s and 1s using the binary system.

Quantum computers rely on quantum bits or qubits to perform computations. Unlike classical bits, qubits can exist in the states 0, 1 or in a state that’s partly 0 and partly 1. In this context, state refers to all the possible values the qubit can have.

The ability of qubits to be in two states is known as superposition. Superposition is one of two fundamental principles that animate quantum computers.