Classical computers are based on binary, using a transitory which is a switch; so, 1 is a closed switch, and 0 is open. Put billions of these switches together, and you have got an excellent CPU. So, how exactly are Quantum computers different and how is maths integrated into their operations?
Quantum computers do not completely function on binary but they do operate on 1s and 0s. So, what does quantum mean? It symbolizes the energy states of very small particles like electrons. It also shows how an electron can exist at 2 places at once; you read that right, two places at once. The classical bit can exist in either of the two states “1” or “0”, however, the Qubit can exist in both the states at the same time which is known as coherent or a quantum superposition, or it can even exist in between 0 and 1.
A classical 3-bit system will have only 2^3 possibilities which are {111, 110, 101, 011, 100, 010, 001, 000}. The sum of probabilities of all states will give one. The number of outcomes that exist in normal computations are finite.
In a classical computer, there are 2^n outcomes, therefore, it needs a high number of bits to give larger values. For instance, to show 256 a classical computer needs 256 or 2^8 bits whereas a quantum computer needs only n bits therefore 256 bits = 8 Qubits. Thus, qubits reduce the amount of processing required to solve a task. This is because there are infinite values between 0 and 1 therefore limiting the values limits the outcome so qubits are not always infinite, this is the same as limiting the domain of a never ending function; here, the range of the function depicts the number of outcomes and the domain depicts the value of qubits. The probability concept they are based on
allows us to use quantum computers to predict things e.g. Google’s quantum computer predicted another element in the periodic table in just 7 days this would take 4-5 years on the fastest supercomputer!!!!
By Karan Bedi
