Quantum Entanglement... Tied together races

BOne of the more basic topics within quantum physics is the idea of quantum entanglement.  Though I said this is basic, this is still a very advanced idea that has been theorized by many physicists; however, I believe that this can be described as well as demonstrated into simpler terms.  As almost everyone knows, the world is made up by particles.  In the past century, there has been research that particles work as pairs.  The reason why they work as pairs is because every particles as a spin.  If we relate this spin back to quantum computing, there is spin up and spin down. Spin up is when the particle is align with the magnetic field, and spin down is when the particle is aligned reverse to the field.  However, if we look at normal physics we know that all momentum must be conserved. This includes angular momentum.  So whenever we observe the spins of two quantumlly entangled particles, we notice that one spin is up and the other spin is down.  While this is interesting what is more interesting is when one particle is both spin up and spin down. Though there is a ratio of whether a particle is spin up or spin down. The quantumlly entangles pair will always fulfill one being up and one being down as if they were attached by imaginary strings that sends information faster than the speed of light. Does this mean that there is a chance we can send information faster than the speed of light. Most likely, that is not possible as particle act in very random and unreliable ways. This means that our information is too complex to be sent through quantumlly entangled particles.

http://youtu.be/ZuvK-od647c

Outline For My Quantum Physics Project

So now that we are getting closer to the presentation day for our senior projects, I am starting to condense and pick out all of the topics that I will discuss during my ten minutes of speech.  I will include most of the topics that I have already introduced in my blog as well as some that are yet to come.  Topics include: Quantum entanglement, quantum tunneling, uncertainty principle, Schrödinger's cat, etc... Down below I will include a more structured outline of what exactly I will be talking about and in what order they will be discussed in. Also, I am trying to think of a creative way to start my presentation up. So far, I'm thinking about starting it with a small demonstration but we will see. Anyways, here is my outline so far

1. Introduce Quantum Mechanics

    - start on quantum entanglement

    - entanglement activity

2. Uncertainty Principle

    - Schrödinger's cat demonstration

    - discuss the reasoning behind quantum superposition

    - lead into the double-slit experiment

3. Double-Slit Experiment

    - predetermined outcomes

    - lead into parallel worlds

    - many worlds theory

4. The future of quantum physics

    - current plans (Hadron Collider)

    - possibilities (quantum computing)

    - broad concepts (quantum tunneling and black holes.)

5. Questions

6. Ending statement. Thank you

Quantum computing part 3

So now that you know about how quantum computing works, you must be asking yourself, "How much better is quantum computing compared to basic computing?" The unfortunate answer to that question is that is not much better. While your computer will be able to excel immensely in areas such as calculating and power, speed is just not its forté. So I am sorry to you netflix binge watchers, but this will not increase video speed. Also, quantum computing is not a replacement for basic computing to size and cost that would be required to manufacture. However, this gives us a little start into the possibilities of quantum mechanics.

I hope you guys have a better understanding of quantum computing after reading these set of blog posts. At the bottom of this blog post, I will include the video of where I got most of my information on quantum computing. Until next time, goodbye.

http://youtu.be/g_IaVepNDT4

Quantum computing part 2

Now that you guys have a basic understanding info regular computing and how the binary system works, I'm going to go a little more in depth on a topic of quantum physics that could change the computing world forever.

Remember when I said that binary works as to different choices: 1 or 2? What if there were more than two choices? For example, what if the computer could display back a 1.5?  Well, in quantum computing this may be possible. In order for us to understand this, however, we have to look at an electron. Every electron has its own magnetic field that it spins towards. This works the same way as a compass as it points in the direction of the Earth's magnetic field.  Whenever and electron is pointing towards the field, it is known as "spin down".  You can also make the electron point in the opposite direction of the field, but this requires a little bit of force.  This is known as "spin up". What makes quantum computing different from basic computing is that these electrons, known as qubits, can be both spin up and sin down at the same time. Wow this may seem confusing, the idea relates back to the superposition, theory where we can not measure the exact position of the electron.  So, you may be wondering how this increases computer power. The reason is that it allows us to use a coefficient rather than two specific numbers.

If we take two bits of basic codes, you can get for different combinations: 00, 01, 10, or 11. However if you use quantum bits, you will get "up, down", "down, up", "down, down", and "up, up". So they both give you four different combinations. When it comes to quantum computing, you can have a coefficient that represents how relative the spin is down, and how relative it is up. This equations can be represent by the formula 2^n, where n is the number of qubits. So in the end you allow for much more processing power.

Quantum computing part 1

Are you tired of your extra slow computer speed. Have you ever wanted to get the edge over everyone else in the office. Well, I might have the solution just for you. Quantum computing may become the next best thing.  In order for us to understand quantum computing we have to understand regular computing first. In this 3 part blog post series, I will explain to you the wonders of quantum level computing.

First of all, how does our computers nowadays work? Just like us humans, computers understand directions and tasks through language; however, there language is a little different. The run on a language known as binary code. There is only two possible letters in this code: zeros and ones.  The computer runs tasks through a grouping of these two options. For example, 00 0100 1110 1010, would be a code that the computer would mean. This is because 0 represents "off" and 1 represents "on". This gives the computer two different choices to perform tasks. With the combination of billions of zeros and ones, the computer is able to accomplish very complex tasks.

So you may be wondering now, why do we need to change our system of computing if it works well already? How does quantum physics relate to this? Now that you understand the basics of regular computing I will be able to explains quantum computing better, but I will save this for next week. This way I won't turn your brain into mush.

The Large Hadron Collider

In the past century, the physics community has remarkably changed through the revelation of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity.   Since the peak of 20th century physics, large scale experiments have been occurring across the world to help discover the mysteries of our universe.  One of the most notable experiments that is still occurring to this day is known as the Large Hadron Collider.  This machine, located in Switzerland just outside of Geneva, is a particle accelerator used to collide two high speed particles together. The purpose of the LHC is to determine answers to fundamental force problems, as well as determine the correlations between quantum mechanics and relativity which are currently unsolvable to to the breakdown of observable particles currently in use. However, there are still any questions left to be discovered in this world that we can not even fathom to think shout currently.

Schrödinger's Cat: Possible Experiment

So lately, I have been trying to think if ways to simplify my project so that everyone is able to understand what my project is about. Obviously since this is quantum physics, this idea of "simplification" will be very difficult to create. However, I have researched an experiment that may be able to show the idea of the uncertainty principle. This experiment was founded by a man by the name of Erwin Schrödinger.  This man had a brilliant way to express how a particle is in a form of all states until it is observed.  How did he do it? Well, his idea required a couple if items that included: a cat, a flask of poison, a radioactive source, an radioactivity detector, and a box. The way the experiment worked is that you would place the cat, flask, and radio active source in a sealed box with the detector on the side. Whenever a particle would decay (which occurs due to radioactivity), the dectector would respond by breaking the flask of poison, which in turn would kill the cat. The true reason for the experiment occurs outside the box, because you wouldn't know whether the cat was dead or alive until you opened the box. This is what the uncertainty principle is. The particle (the cat) is theoretically in all states (dead or alive) until it is observed by others. I feel that I could recreate this idea with the exception if a dead cat and radioactivity. I'm not sure what I will do yet but I have a couple of ideas. Until next blog, I will talk to you guys then.