Programming Binary Addition with a Turing Machine

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theophyman
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hello,
One can wonder what is the relation between the title of this thread and the subject of quantum mechanics,
well, i was reading in a book about quantum computation and information and it was talking about computer science in some chapter where it shows a basic understanding of Turing machine.
Ok, my question is: how to write a program that adds (modulo two) two binary numbers (assuming that they have the same length) separated by a 'blank' . the turing machine has only one tape and one read/write head.

is it possible?

thank you
 
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There are many equivalent definition of what a universal Turing machine is, it could have just one tape, or several. In fact, anything a computer can do, a Turing machine can do as well. The rule of the game is to start from something as rudimentary as possible and progressively build up complexity. Quite frankly, I believe writing such a program is more of a curiosity, possibly with pedagogical value, but again : how is this relevant to quantum mechanics ?
 
humanino said:
There are many equivalent definition of what a universal Turing machine is, it could have just one tape, or several.

i am new in learning Turing machines, but i think there is a difference between "standard" turing machine and universal turing machine. my question is about the "standard" one.


humanino said:
I believe writing such a program is more of a curiosity, possibly with pedagogical value, but again : how is this relevant to quantum mechanics ?

i can get the answer of my question using one tape with tow heads (is it acceptable?).

humanino said:
how is this relevant to quantum mechanics ?

as i said in my question above, i am learning quantum computation and quantum information,i found the turing machine and universal turing machine in a book about the subject of quantum computation and information.
 
Found this for ya. Hope it helps your understanding.

http://www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/~awmorp/turingmachine/turing.html
 
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mikestampone said:
Found this for ya. Hope it helps your understanding.

http://www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/~awmorp/turingmachine/turing.html

thank you, it was very helpful.
 
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