Quantum Series: The Army of Qubits.

This is the start of our Quantum Series, the aim of which is to explain a bunch of complex concepts in simple terms.

Transistors are one of the key building blocks of the computer. Due to rapid developments in the industry, transistors keep getting more efficient and compact. There is also a high degree of complexity that comes with this continuous shrinkage as we get closer to the atomic level. Eventually, we reach the limit of the world of classical physics.

We don’t want this bottleneck to hinder our progress and this is when the army of qubits come to the rescue.

The transistor can assume two states: on and off. This has been translated into the smallest unit of information for classical computers. A bit can only store two values: 0 or 1.

A quantum computer uses quantum bits, or qubits, as the smallest unit of information. For example, a photon or electron easily qualifies to join the army of qubits.

So what makes the qubit so special?

Imagine a classical army of bits, where one knight is trying to save the dying progress of the computing industry. He has to find his way through an intricate labyrinth with infinitely many paths. In order to find the correct paths, he has to individually try every single one of them. Failure after failure, he may be tempted to simply give up on this quest.

Meanwhile, our qubit knight can simultaneously walk through all the possible paths and ultimately take a leap into the future of innovative computing developments.