One of the mysterious points to address in an introduction to quantum programming is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. This states that because of an electron’s wave-like nature, you cannot know the precise position and momentum of an electron. The more accurately you know one, the less accurately you know the other.
An electron in a superposition can be interpreted as being in two positions at one time. It can also be interpreted as there being a probability of it being in any given location based on the wave function.
It would be hard to write an introduction to quantum programming without describing qubits. These are a simple two-state system used to represent the quantum mechanics such as those demonstrated by an electron. Once a qubit is measured the location of the electron becomes known and the wave function no longer applies. This leads to the qubit returning either a state of 0 or 1 when measured.
These quantum posts adapt the current method of quantum programming to use R2 Wave Numbers. They are guided by the Qiskit Summer School course – Introduction to Quantum Computing. They are not intended as a full explanation of quantum programming and prior knowledge of quantum programming is required. The posts start by redefining the Bloch Sphere. Next is a description of the maths behind current quantum programming and its adaptation to R2 Wave Numbers.
Next: Classical Qubits
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