5 Quantum Algorithms That Could Change The World
Will quantum computing help us create a better world, or destroy it?
Quantum computers don’t work by trying every possibility at once.
Quantum computers don’t speed up every problem.
They are faster for a certain set of problems.
There are only a few dozen or so quantum algorithms. In traditional terminology, algorithm means just a set of instructions. But when we refer to quantum algorithms, we mean instructions that actually harness quantum properties and potentially can solve these mathematical problems faster than a classical computer.
Even though there are a limited number of quantum algorithms, the ones that do exist can have a large impact on very important, broad-reaching problems.
Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and chemical simulations
The Variational Quantum Eigensolver is the foundational algorithm that could simulate molecules and chemical reactions.
In chemistry, the properties of atoms and molecules can be found by solving the Schrödinger equation. The problem gets harder the more atoms you add, so exact calculations are very time consuming above just a few atoms. Approximate solutions exist, but once you get up to just a…
