Computers Definition and 240 Threads

I was reading about quantum computers and the article was saying about how cold everything has to be for qubits to exist in a superposition state. Why do things like the double slit experiment with single photons work at room temperature? Because when you get the interference pattern with single...

Hi I'm in a physics lab right now (biophysics specifically) and I'm interested in the field of physics and biology. I've already been in this lab for five months now but I'm coming to the point where I have to work with a lot of computer programming (Matlab) and debugging. I've had absolutely...

I am currently working on a project on early mechanical computers; I understand the basics of how the rotor mechanisms, and whatnot work. However, I need some specific, and preferably diagrams. Most of the sources I've found refer to the broader working of the mechanism (and the implications)...

I just got accepted to an electrical and computer engineering course (ECE) and I was wondering if its possible with this degree to get a job in electronic engineering. It seems that the syllabus covers more of electrical engineering than computer, but I'd like to get a job designing hardware...

I create this thread to continue discussion with @jim hardy and @WWGD started elsewhere https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/any-popular-non-biased-and-reputable-sources-of-politics.827409/page-4#post-5422569 Any topic concerning computers and internet can be discussed here I don't know, but...

Hello! I was watching a video () about how extreme low temperatures are achieved in a D-Wave computer. As they explain, they have this series of cooling stages, each of which providing a temperature drop over the previous. I was wondering however, how could they avoid thermal propagation through...

Why don't they mandate that all voting machines use open source software. They seem to use PC's presumedly with the windows OS. To me this is a perfect cheating machine. You give your vote to the programmer and then it is all up to him or her. There are no tests that can be...

I was just wondering when you type some numbers into your computers calculator or into a website, how does it find the answer? Obviously for very small numbers like 4x12 it could do this just by addition. What about for massive calculations? For example 102! I typed this into Wolfram Alpha and...

Is carbon nanotube the only material found that would make a faster and more efficient computer or are there other materials or methods found that would make a faster computer as well? Here is an article on carbon nanotube

Information Technology or Health Services Administration? Will acquiring a Bachelors in these majors plus an internship lead to a stable and efficient career? Please give me the pros and cons of each major. Thanks.

Hi, I'm having trouble understanding the power of qubits relating to quantum computers. I've read a number of times that the power comes from the fact that instead of simply holding an on or off state (1/0), they can hold both at the same time (superposition). However, when we measure them...

Wiki on quantum tomography says: "The number of experimental configurations (state preparations and measurements) required for quantum process tomography grows exponentially with the number of constituent particles of a system. Consequently, in general, QPT is an impossible task for large-scale...

Hi Aside from one form of poker (whose name escapes me at present) what games of any kind can humans still stand a reasonable chance of beating computers? Many thanks.

I myself are thinking about chiptune and dubstep ... and if it's possible , can you name a song that is the best to listen to when programming ?

the other thread about computer sciences got me wondering just how fast or how many millions or billions of tasks are likely to be the physical limits to processors? I'm not asking how small things will get but where if any is the brick wall to processing. to further limit the scope this is...

I was recently reading about quantum computers because I once asked a teacher with more experience in the field "What was the origin of the quantum speedup" with his answer being quantum parallelism, which I kinda understood at that time, but I forgot about it. So, the other day I was thinking...

Hello Reader, I am looking into electronics and how the physically work. I'm less interested in the programing side of them and more interested in how to build them. Eventually I would like to be able to build computers and program them but that is a long way off. Does anyone have any...

Hi everyone. I was just reading stuff about carreers like "data analyst" or "machine learning jobs", and I found out, by reading various sites, that machine learning people (especially those with CS or stat background) is, and will be, a good opportunity of working, there'll be much jobs in that...

Is this equation of any use or in any way interesting? c = speed of light (m/s) e = euler's number I don't know much about physics but 2^6=log_2(64), this is a binary logarithm so would this mean that computers, the world (c and e) and circles(pi) all be related somehow by this equation?

This is really interesting, so I thought I share it. These people succeeded in finding a way to build all the logic gates using a system that manipulates water droplets using magnets and a magnetic field. Its slower than current computers but they have other (interesting) applications in mind...

Hello, I am stuck between two majors to study in college, Computer Engineering and Aerospace Engineering. About me: I am going to be a senior next year and I am going to be taking high level ap calculus and ap physics. I am a very creative person and am very good at the arts and industrial...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/upshot/what-to-learn-in-college-to-stay-one-step-ahead-of-computers.html?ref=us&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1 I thought this article today posed some interesting questions. Is it possible to learn a certain curriculum in college that would allow people to "stay ahead"...

Why mobile phone start to vibrate giving you the signal that the phone is going to ring if the telephone is near to computer, or monitor?

http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1966-72-06/S0002-9904-1966-11654-3/ Funny thing, this: #define p5(__i__) (__i__*__i__*__i__*__i__*__i__) int main(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[]) { __int64 i, j, k, l, m; for (i = 1;i < 200;i++) for (j = 1;j < i;j++) for (k = 1;k <...

There has been a lot of talk on jobs that computers are replacing and there does seem to be reports of computers replacing scientists altogether. There are articles like this: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/robot_invasion/2011/09/robot_invasion_can_computers_replace_scientists_.html...

lets say someone had an idea for a fully optical computer; that had a optical cubic processor, that refracted and reflected signals. into a optical "motherboard" (except it was not a flat board, more of a rectangle), how would one go about writing a language for such a thing (lets say a base 8...

I made a credit card transaction at my college's engineering open computer lab (I'm NOT an engineering student, but anyone can use it if they are students). I didn't think much about it at the time, but then started feeling a little weird about it later on today. I figured in the back of my...

Just as an introduction, I'm attempting to bootstrap myself up in the language of quantum computers. I've got a ways to go, but I am making some headway. If y'all don't mind, I'd like to use these forums to ask what I hope are some relatively simple questions. I'm pretty good to go on the...

I have an AS degree in Computer Science. I'm in the process of transferring to a 4-year university to pursue a BS in Envionrmental Science. I've always been heavily interested in computers, including running my own web & email server, database administration, hardware, and networking. I have run...

Computers were lame until Apple made them. Funny how Bill Gates says "[Microsoft and Apple] were the 2 companies that really got the graphics interface." yet he believes the future of a tablet computer will be "one where I can use the pen" ... That's what he said in 2010, 3 years after Apple...

Greetings, I am looking for a Introduction on quantum computers and algorithms such as shores algorithm(spelling may be wrong).The level of mathematics and QM is irelavent, thus integral calculation and nth degree differentail equation of any form are no problem. Any recommendations are apreciated.

Hi The Adobe flash player kept crashing and really slow down both my laptops. One is Win 7 Pro and the other is Win 8. I can hear the fan running hard, the mouse is very slow responding. Then finally a pop up saying the Flash player crashed and ask whether I want to stop the plug in. It happens...

Hello. Our current computers use bits, so they use the binary numeral system. But I heard that the future quantum computers will use qubits instead of simple bits. Since in the word "qubit" there is the word "bi" I first thought that this meant that quantum computers would use binary (base...

Hi PF. This isn't really a homework question so I posted it here. We were supposed to find a list of devices which we found used capacitors for homework but I had some questions about the capacitors I found in an old Del PC. I have attached the picture to this thread. There seems to be a large...

Hello, Once again I am here to consult with you. I am a new assistant professor at a community college and have gotten the privilege of updating the physics lab. Just yesterday, I competed a list of laboratory items that totaled up to 40 K! Hope the school will pass the funding :) We are...

I am just a beginner so if I am asking in the wrong forum please move it to the more relevant one. From my understanding, electromagnetic waves are what carry audio signals and dependent on the conductor, this speed varies. I have read coxial will carry at about 2/3 speed of light, and...

Hello, I don't know either if I'm posting this in the right section and if I spelled all the words correctly (I'm not a english-native speaker). I wanted to do a research on the physics concepts beyond computers especially regarding but not exclusively alternate current and magnetism. To let you...

I don't mean coding, but on a more fundamental and physical level. What happens in all the hardware of a computer that allows it to do all that it does and display it on your screen? Essentially, what happens in a computer that allows it to tell you that 1+1=2. I wasn't sure where to put...

I don't know if analog computers exist or not but if they were to be made, how would they work? I have idea of how digital computers work, how memory, processor etc. work. With analog signals, you can perhaps do basic operations like addition, subtraction using amplifiers but how about...

I'm a huge nerd, and I spend ~90% of my free time doing something on my PC, whether it's playing video games, browsing/posting on forums, playing with video editing software, messing around with various programming languages, you name it. So, I kind of want to factor that into my career...

I've been reading about quantum entanglement, and I read in many websites that it plays a very important role on quantum computers. I tried to find why, but the only information I got was that quantum entanglement allowed us to see the value of a qubit without interacting directly with it (and...

I understood many maths of QM and even QFT.. but I can't totally understand how a quantum computer can factorize millions of times faster. In normal turing machine, there is 0 and 1. But in quantum computers, there is 0 and 1 and superpositions of it.. meaning it can be 0.0001 or 0.5253 or 0.874...

I'm torn between software engineering and computer repair. Both are great to me. Like if my friend comes to me and says my computer is running really slow can you fix it? I love that. I love being the one to go to and I love fixing computers. Even if it took a week to fix that's a zero...

I was wondering how people ran computers before operating system. Since there is no OS to load our program, run it and then show the result, was it all done manually? What was the procedure to load your program into the memory? I have heard something called dumb terminals. Was that used...

I've heard it claimed before that brains could be quantum computers (I think it was on Through the Wormhole). Is there any evidence of this? I'm thinking about reading up on quantum computation, but don't know anything about quantum mechanics yet. I'm mostly interested in machine learning...

Supposing that I have 3 computers (A,B,C) C is disabled its internet connection while A and B are not. My computer is A and I must connect to C through B. If B and C are both virtual machines, then I am thinking B and C share the same communication channel, right ? Giving that this is a...

Hi, Not sure if this is the right place to post this but... I understand that D-Wave has a developed an adiabetic quantum computer. Google and Lockheed Martin have both purchased these computers from D-Wave recently. Could such a quantum computer (or perhaps future versions of it with...

Hello, My summer has just begun and I am looking forward to being able to learn things that interest me which I will not be able to learn about in school for a while. One of these topics is computing. I know that this is a very complicated matter, but I am interested in learning the principles...

I was thinking whether I should put this threat under general physics or engineering... but anyway, here's the problem: how long do we need to wait until quantum computing is put to use? Also, can programmes that run on classical computers run on quantum computers, or do they need an entirely...

Mr X, the head of the patent office, talks with a visitor: "What would you like to patent?" "A robot." "Oh, gosh! The same old things," Mr X is enraged. "My dear friend, I am sick and tired of inventors! Hardly a day passes without one coming into order a patent for another robot." "Well, but I...