From San Francisco today the Google Laboratories announced a significant and long-expected discovery in quantum supremacy computing. The lab has reported in the science magazine Nature, saying that with this new discovery, which has been in the works for the past several years, most computers can be adjusted to work calculations at inconceivable speed — the kind of speed that will make the most complex mathematical equations seem like child’s play a take only a few seconds to perform.
According to the magazine article, the lab gave a quantum-enhanced computer a mathematical problem that current supercomputers would not be able to unscramble and complete in less than ten thousand years — with quantum supremacy, the problem was solved neatly and completely in just over three minutes.
Quantum mechanics are behind the new computer breakthrough. Quantum mechanics has been around for over a century, but is so difficult to completely grasp that even the great Albert Einstein had to take classes in it after beginning his teaching career at Princeton University. It all boils down to the fact that at the subatomic level matter and energy do not follow the regular, or Newtonian, laws of physics. This becomes even more pronounced when subatomic particles are subjected to extremely cold temperatures. But scientists now have figured out how to harness this mind-bending format to give computers undreamed-of calculating speed.