Quantum Computing

This is a series about teaching myself quantum computing from the bottom up, the way a curious fifteen-year-old would tackle it. No physics PhD. No assumed math. Just patient working through the hard parts until they feel obvious.

I am writing each part as I figure it out, in order. Read in sequence, or skip to whatever sounds interesting. Either way, the goal is the same: by the end of the series, the words qubit, superposition, entanglement, interference, and error correction should mean something specific in your head, not just feel like marketing.

The series exists because of an earlier essay, From Black Holes to Quantum Computers. That post triggered my curiosity in actually learning quantum computing. Since then I have been spending 45 to 60 minutes a week on it. Learning new concepts, experimenting, trying things on IBM's free tier.

It has been fun to learn an entirely new programming paradigm. Unlike what I have learned in the past, this one is very different. You have to think and imagine states in a probabilistic way. It is fascinating.

Quantum physics and astronomy have always pulled at me. The universe is so mysterious. It is fascinating to learn how it works, and the secrets it hides. It is amazing, and I am enjoying it.

Each post will start where the previous post ended. When something is hard, I will name what is hard about it. When I am wrong, I will come back and fix it.

If you spot a mistake or have a better way to explain something, please send it over. The series gets better when more people read it.