The technological world is making advancements every day, but one of the greatest technological achievements is the quantum computer. Today's computers and phones use bits which are essentially 1's or 0's. Any website you visit or game you play is just a long chain of these numbers; quantum computers use something knows as qubits.
These qubits are subatomic particles like photons and electrons but they have some quantum properties which make computing easy; these are known as superposition and entanglement. A superposition enables the qubit to be a 1 and 0 at the same time, which allows the computer to calculate and process information much faster than a normal computer. Quantum bits occur in pairs naturally. Changing the value of one qubit will, in turn, affect the value of its pair in a predictable form even if they are separated by long distance. Quantum bits are usually controlled using a vacuum or extremely cold environments, these temperatures are lower than the ones in deep space. The qubits need to be protected as even the smallest vibration or sound can cause decoherence. This basically means that the qubit will tumble out of its superposition before its job is complete.
It's unclear as to how many qubits are required to let a quantum computer achieve its full potential, but researchers are on the move finding newer and better ways to make it more efficient. Experts, however, say that it will take up to half a decade for these computers to even near their full potential.
That's all for now! Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below. Do let us know if you would like us to write about the workings of this computer in detail!
Writer: Aahaan Sheth
09/07/2020
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