In Two Places at Once

Imagine taking a photo of a speeding car.

A fast shutter freezes the car in position but gives no idea of its speed. A slow shutter produces a blurred streak, suggesting speed but not much about position.

This analogy applies to electrons. In the 1920s, German physicist Werner Heisenberg was studying them. The closer he came to measuring their positions, the less he could measure their speed. And vice versa.

He realized that speed and position are simply uncertain on the atomic scale. He called this the Uncertainty Principle, and it launched the field of quantum physics.

In the decades to come, things got weirder, as physicists recognized atomic particles could be in several places at once, called superposition, and entangled across space -- and time.

Computer scientists have now applied these concepts to experiment with quantum computing.

Normal computers use binary bits – which are either 0 or 1. In quantum computers, bits can be 0 and 1 … at the same time.

While expensive and complicated, quantum computers can process millions of times faster and will likely change what’s possible in data modeling and complex problem solving.

If you find all this confusing, you’re not alone. Even the renowned physicist Richard Feynman said: If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.

I think I understand…