Primer

Volume II · 00 · The stack

Volume II · Quantum

A state is a direction. Measurement is a question you only get to ask once.

Eight labs: a qubit on a sphere, a measurement that cannot be undone, then Deutsch — the smallest quantum advantage that is actually an advantage.

In English

A qubit is not a magical bit that is 0 and 1 at once. It is a direction you can rotate, and a question you can ask only once. This volume builds that picture until Deutsch — the smallest demo that quantum looking is actually cheaper.

Try this
Start with Superposition and drag the sphere. Come back here if a later lab feels abstract.
Keep this
States are directions. Measurement is a one-shot question.

The stack · click a layer

  1. 08Decoherence
  2. 07Deutsch
  3. 06Circuits
  4. 05Gates
  5. 04Entanglement
  6. 03Interference
  7. 02Measurement
  8. 01Superposition

What this is

A working 1- and 2-qubit state vector you can rotate, measure, entangle, and decohere. Deutsch’s algorithm is the smallest quantum advantage that is actually an advantage.

What this is not

Not a hardware emulator and not a substitute for Nielsen & Chuang. Phases, Born-rule shots, and density-matrix damping are computed for real. The Bloch drawing is a projection.

  1. 01 · The stateSuperpositionDrag a state. Read the amplitudes.A qubit is a direction. The chances are the square of the amplitudes.
  2. 02 · The questionMeasurementFire shots. Watch the state collapse.One measurement, one bit, a new state. The Born rule is the chance, not a hidden label.
  3. 03 · AmplitudesInterferenceTurn a phase. Kill a path.Amplitudes add, and a minus can cancel a path. Probabilities cannot do that.
  4. 04 · Two qubitsEntanglementMake a Bell pair. Measure one side.Entanglement is one state for two qubits, not a wire between them.
  5. 05 · The verbsGatesTap X, H, Z. Watch the sphere.Gates rotate. They do not erase. X / H / Z are the starter verbs.
  6. 06 · CompositionCircuitsBuild a one-qubit circuit and run it.A circuit is multiply-the-rotations, then look.
  7. 07 · An algorithmDeutschRun Deutsch on four oracles.Deutsch is the smallest quantum speedup that is actually a speedup.
  8. 08 · The systemDecoherenceDecay the Bloch vector. Try to interfere.Decoherence is an unscheduled measurement. Error correction is the harness.