Quantum computing could solve problems that would take today's computers eons in the time it takes to grab a cup of coffee. It could have wildest imagination-type applications in fields such as machine learning and medicine, chemistry and cryptography, materials science and engineering. It could allow humans to understand and control the very building blocks of the universe.
The difference between quantum and classical computing is all in the approach. Classical computers attack problems like you would navigate a corn maze, those farm-size labyrinths popular in rural areas at harvest time. It proceeds down each long, stalk-lined corridor and at each fork, it picks one direction. If it reaches a dead end, it turns around, finds its way back, and tries another route until eventually it solves the maze (unless, of course, the maze is so massive that examining every route takes the lifetime of the universe).Quantum computers run on quantum bits, or qubits. Because of the bizarre properties of a quantum state, like superposition, a qubit can be a 1 or a 0 – or it can operate as both a 1 and a 0 at the same time. If one qubit, as both a 1 and a 0, can do two calculations at once, then two qubits can do four, and things get exponential pretty quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg8iCnQTLfM#t=175
Source of article:Microsoft
Microsoft Stories: Station Q
The difference between quantum and classical computing is all in the approach. Classical computers attack problems like you would navigate a corn maze, those farm-size labyrinths popular in rural areas at harvest time. It proceeds down each long, stalk-lined corridor and at each fork, it picks one direction. If it reaches a dead end, it turns around, finds its way back, and tries another route until eventually it solves the maze (unless, of course, the maze is so massive that examining every route takes the lifetime of the universe).Quantum computers run on quantum bits, or qubits. Because of the bizarre properties of a quantum state, like superposition, a qubit can be a 1 or a 0 – or it can operate as both a 1 and a 0 at the same time. If one qubit, as both a 1 and a 0, can do two calculations at once, then two qubits can do four, and things get exponential pretty quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg8iCnQTLfM#t=175
Source of article:Microsoft
Microsoft Stories: Station Q
