The mention of atomic tests brings to mind two diametrically opposite locations: the tropical islands of the pacific and the Nevada desert.
In the pacific the United States used the Marshal Islands to test its most powerful nuclear weapons.
“It was the biggest bear I’ve ever seen”, said the man and his wife. I thank them and continue ascending the canyon, occasionally dragging a foot through a patch of gravel or leaves; any bear will have ample warning of my approach.
Since the mathematics of computer science was developed and formalized in the early decades of the 1900s, three different computational models have risen to prominence and have been show to be equally powerful. These models are Turing machines, Lambda calculus and μ-recursive functions.
In the previous installation of this series, I mostly focused on the code and glossed over most of the mathematical and physical background. In this post I will go over more of the background behind quantum computing with the intention to give an intuitive understanding of the concepts.
“But, as Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason.” - Professor Farnsworth
Quantum mechanics is the phrase at the center of a host of nonsensical beliefs spread by charlatans like Deepak Chopra.
There’s a lot of talk surrounding quantum computers. Especially since D-Wave announced that they had produced a quantum computer1. There was a lot of controversy as to whether their machine actually counted as a quanutm computer.