What the Heck is a Qubit?

What do people actually mean when they talk about quantum computing? What could it possibly mean for a bit to be both zero and one simultaneously? Or to just try all the answers at once and pick the best one? What is being entangled? Are we really on the verge of quantum-mediated alternate-history time-travel?

No. But a lot of the other strange things you might have heard about are real! And you (yes, YOU) can already work with prototype machines today. If you've ever wondered what it was like to work in our industry in the 1950s, when computing was brand new and nobody knew where it would end up, quantum computing can give you some of that - not with time travel, but just by being raw.

The basic ideas: qubits, superposition, and entanglement, can be managed with high school algebra. So we will do a little bit of that.

We will also briefly refresh (or initialize) your memory of basic bits and gates from classical computing, to orient us and make the similarities and differences clear. And we will point to some online resources where you can build logic gates, play with quantum circuits, and explore more on your own.

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