IMPORTANT: Complete the prerequisite courses QC051 and QC101 before starting this course.
This is a follow-on course to QC101. It helps you gain an intuitive and qualitative understanding of basic quantum physics to help you understand more advanced quantum computing courses.
Unlike the earlier QC101 course, this course has very little Math. The aim is to help you understand qualitatively how the physics of quantum mechanics works.
Why do you need a Qualitative Understanding of Quantum Physics?
The Math of quantum physics is different, but it is not complicated. In many ways it is simpler than the engineering calculus that many of you studied in college. Although quantum math is simple, its mathematical simplicity hides many strange, yet important behaviors.
For instance, the mathematical representation of a Bell State is very simple. But the physical implications of a Bell State are weird. A photon has an angle of polarization, a property that is like a direction. But strangely, photons that are entangled in the Bell State behave as though they have no preferred angle or direction.
An intuitive appreciation of such weird behavior will be useful when I present more advanced topics on quantum algorithms in later courses.
To help you understand quantum physics qualitatively, I have provided simulators written in Java. Running the simulators and studying the Java source-code will help you gain a qualitative understanding that goes beyond merely knowing how to do the Math.
How can you get the most from this course?
Unlike the earlier QC101, this course is light on Math. The primary aim of this course is to ensure that you are completely comfortable with the implications of superposition and entanglement. I spend a lot of time reinforcing basic concepts that were already introduced in QC101. Later in the course, I highlight some weird implications of entanglement.
The content is not challenging. But don't stop with viewing the videos. To get the most from this course, I encourage you to run my simulators with your own virtual experiments.
