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Aaron
Posts: 4
Joined: July 23rd, 2001, 3:46 pm

Quantum computing quiz

July 18th, 2004, 1:57 am

The rope idea doesn't work. Any real ropes would be lucky to get the square root of two to three decimal places. High precision manufacturing might get you a few more decimal places, that's it. Even in theory, you couldn't get them exact.The precise answer, but uncertainty in reading it works, I think anyway. Of course, it raises a definitional question of what it means to store an answer that cannot be read with finite energy.
Last edited by Aaron on July 17th, 2004, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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tristanreid
Posts: 5
Joined: May 12th, 2004, 6:58 pm

Quantum computing quiz

July 19th, 2004, 3:09 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: AaronThe rope idea doesn't work. Any real ropes would be lucky to get the square root of two to three decimal places. High precision manufacturing might get you a few more decimal places, that's it. Even in theory, you couldn't get them exact.The precise answer, but uncertainty in reading it works, I think anyway. Of course, it raises a definitional question of what it means to store an answer that cannot be read with finite energy.Yeah, I shouldn't have used rope as an anology. Just intended to propose that the state of the quantum (or whatever) system 'contained' the answer without having to set each bit of the answer. Which lead to your next question...interesting. It's almost like a metaphor for reading a proof by induction. We can see that the answer is correct (for n), and we can calculate as far as we'd like by proving each successive n+1, but we cannot exhaustively answer the question using finite energy.If computers were to be made like this (containing 'realities' that could only be read by expending infinite energy) would we have any benefit? The only benefit I can think of is if reading that sequence took less energy than calculating it, particularly if reading the 1,000,000th digit took no more energy than reading the 1st.-t.