What is superposition?! And what does it have to do with qubits and quantum technology?

Tai-Danae and Adam are joined by Stefan Leichenauer, VP of Engineering at SandboxAQ to make sense of this fundamental property of the quantum world.

Want to get in touch? Write us at faq-podcast@sandboxaq.com

Chapters:

00:00 Introductions

00:26 Recap from ep. 01

01:18 What is superposition?

02:56 Etymology of superposition

07:50 Ok, what's the actual definition of superposition?

12:07 But what about the randomness?

12:40 Tying a bow on one way to think about superposition

15:20 Let's bring in an expert!

16:33 How did Stefan think about superposition when he first learned about it?

22:10 An explanation of superposition to quantum and math novices

24:09 Real data explained by superposition - inherent randomness

26:01 Quantum observations vs non-quantum observations - randomness in outcomes

28:18 Does superposition mean something is doing two things at the same time?

30:59 A concrete example of superposition - the electron cloud

34:39 Historical use of the word superposition

36:02 Yes, but what is the position of the thing that's in superposition?

41:17 How can you measure the position of an electron?

44:49 What other data does superposition explain?

48:37 How can we apply superposition to create tools and application?

52:15 Final words of wisdom about learning superposition

54:39 It's a long journey to fully grasp these concepts!

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