Quantum Computers: A Primer

What is a quantum computer and why is it important?  This is a complicated topic, but has a huge impact on building faster computers.

You know the famous "Schrodinger's Cat" thought experiment: A cat is sealed in a box with a flask of poison and a radiation source.  If the source emits a radioactive particle, a 50-50 chance, the flask shatters, releasing the poison and killing the cat.  Quantum mechanics implies that the cat is simultaneously alive and dead, in superposition, until it is observed.  The act of opening the box collapses the superposition, returning the cat to a classical state of either alive or dead.

Classical computers process data in the form of binary digits, or bits, that are either 1's or 0's.  When you bought a Nintendo-64, it had 64-bits to store data and perform calculations.  Because a quantum computer's data exists in multiple states, it can perform multiple operations simultaneously, instead of one by one, making it much faster.