Quantum Computing for Everyone

by Chris Bernhardt

In quantum mechanics, we are often considering tiny particles like atoms or electrons. Here bouncing photons off them has an effect that is no longer negligible. In order to perform some measurement, we have to interact with the system. These interactions are going to perturb our system, so we can no longer ignore them.

There is no real randomness in classical mechanics, just what is often called sensitive dependence to initial conditions—a small change in the input can get amplified and produce an entirely different outcome.