- I don't know about you
but for me terms such as quantum mechanics,
quantum physics and quantum computing
all have an exotic and mysterious allure to them.
I immediately think of a world of science
that remains hidden to most by complexity
and only understandable by a few.
There's a reason this domain of science appears this way.
It's complex.
It often requires specific prerequisite knowledge
of physics and mathematics
and it challenges some of our basic understanding
of science that we learned in school.
With the eventual arrival of quantum computing
to a much broader audience,
it's time for us to begin to peal back some
of these veil of mystique.
In doing so, we will reveal
and discuss some basic quantum mechanics phenomena
with simple language.
A deeper understanding is best left
for a more scientific exploration at another time.
So, let's get into it.
In discussing classical computing earlier,
we noted the essential role of electrons.
Those particles that orbit around an atom.
The movement of electrons between atoms
creates electrical current.
The necessary ingredient of a transistor
to carry out its job.
As electrons move around a circuit,
we generally have certainty about their location,
speed and timing.
For example, if a series of transistors are engaged
in a certain way, we generally know when,
where and how fast electrons will arrive
at a specific location.
It's a predictable and measurable science.
Today's computing is based
on what is termed classical mechanics.
However, at the turn of the 20th century,
a series of discoveries by several scientists resulted
in questions about the predictability
of the behavior of particles.
For example, while researching deep
in the smallest discrete unit of a physical property,
called a quantum,
results question the certainty of a particle's behavior
and location at a given time.
Scientists concluded that this behavior
may in fact be subject to probability.
While at first thought to be mistakes
in the complex mathematics that derive these conclusions,
later validation proved otherwise.
These discoveries were strange, unexpected
and very exciting.
Research in this area,
that is the ability to describe
through various means the interaction
and motion of subatomic particles
would become known as quantum mechanics.
Suddenly our long-held beliefs
about the nature of the physical universe
was not as straightforward as previously thought.
Other quantum phenomena discovered at the time
was that light could be behave like a particle,
not limiting itself to the nature
of being a wave
and particles could have properties of waves.
It would become known as wave-particle duality.
It is enough to understand
that up to this point
of this important discovery,
scientists assumed that because waves
and particles were entirely different,
they did not occupy the same physical domain.
In the 1920s, an experiment demonstrated
light waves colliding with particles
thus proving this remarkable theory.
While it may now seem unintuitive,
it is important to point out that classical
and quantum mechanics are not in conflict with one another.
Through rigorous experiments
and mathematics, the unusual nature of science
at quantum scale is still consistent
with our observations of physics
at a larger scale.
The subatomic probabilistic nature
of quantum mechanics enables classical mechanics
which manifests statistically accurate
as we predicted at a larger scale.
Thus it could also be concluded
that by extension quantum
ultimately explains classical computing.
Among many revelations,
quantum mechanics has helped to explain
what keeps electrons in orbit around an atom.
How atoms bond to produce molecules.
And it is just beginning to provide us with clues
as to what dark matter might be
and the nature of black holes.
It's helping us understand both the smallest
and largest objects in the known universe.
It has been hoped that the discovery
of the nature of quantum mechanics
would result in a unified theory of everything.
Notable quantum scientists, Albert Einstein,
and Stephen Hawking, among others,
labored passionately to land on this equation,
the ultimate human prize to explain the universe
as we know it.
However, this goal has remained elusive.
Quantum mechanics has helped us understand science
but it's worth noting that many questions remain unanswered.
The greatest discoveries are still ahead of us.
While it's not necessary to understand the full implications
of all of this,
it's enough to know that the discovery
of these new properties of subatomic physics
has challenged our traditional understanding of science
and it's providing more satisfying explanations
for the mechanics of the universe
while also creating many questions.
Our understanding of quantum mechanics
has opened a vast array of new possibilities
including the science that would eventually enable
the first experiments in quantum computing.