How Quantum Physics Could Help Decipher A Code
| Games : Codes And Ciphers There are two interesting consequences of applying quantum physics to codes: First of all, the majority of existing codes could all be broken (apart from the one time pad) but new codes could be created that by the way they are set up and definition, could not be broken if quantum theory is correct. Let's say at the present time you want to work out the prime factors of the product of two primes. Present theory says that you go through trial and error plugging in numbers until you find one factor. Thus using a computer it needs to calculate the division of n by x, then x + 1, x + 2 and so on until it finds a factor. Even a really quick computer is going to take a while to get through tens of millions of potential factors, and on massive scales it soon appears evident the computer probably needs more time than the age of the universe to find the factors! However if you could perform the calculation on a quantum computer then you can exploit superposition. Basically whilst unobserved at the quantum level in a very real sense a spinning photon shot with a ray of light that may or may not affect its spin is in both spins, lets say east and west. If these represent 1 and 0 respectively, then for 3 photons all combinations are present all at once, therefore the calculation needs to be performed just once. Compare this with the ordinary computer where the calculations are performed one after the after: very, very quickly, but still one after the other, taking time. Now imagine that you had ten photons in there and you start to see the power: or a hundred or a thousand and so on. If you can practically build this quantum computer then you can exploit the bizarre quantum theory of superposition to perform many calculations at once, rather than sequentially.
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