A QuBIT is not a Qubit

Some of you folks from New Jersey may have heard about a recent hot topic relevant to your near future. Indeed, Qubits are a big deal, but are they a bigger deal than QuBIT?

Qubits: also called quantum bits, chances are your techy mind has heard all about them. The classical ("normal") computers that we're all used to already do things we do but better, so logically the next step in the field of computer science is to make another type of computers that can do things we do but better but this time even betterer.

So you may be asking yourself, "That sounds cool and scary that my talents will be irrelevant in the next 15 years, but what IS a qubit?"

A normal bit that form the basis of conventional computer science are based on a binary, or two state, system. Each bit is either a 1 or a 0, a true or a false, a NJQBA reader or some lame out of state layperson. A Qubit on the other hand, uses the property of superposition, in which it can be in multiple states at the same time before it is measured. Typically, these Qubits are electrons, since they are quantum mechanical objects that have two states, being their spin that may either be up or down. Given a certain number of Qubits, there are 2 to that number many possible states that the Qubits can be in (think of each electron has either spin up or spin down like a classical bit, since there are two states for each electron). Each of these possible states are represented with a number, called the amplitude (these are sort of analogous to the probabilities of the states and based on wave functions), which can be viewed as a normal bit. From this you can see how big of a jump the amount of data stored is. However, since measuring the state removes the superposition of the Qubits, quantum computers require different circuits and computations from the conventional ones in classical computers.

The main advantage of Qubits is that they are able to store much more data than a classical bit. Google's Sycamore chip, with "just" 53 Qubits, could produce 2^53 bit strings. For many algorithms, quantum computers won't actually be able to perform them faster than a typical classical computer. Protobowl and League of Legends will basically still lag just as much on a quantum computer. However, they would allow us to greatly reduce the size of computers down the line, and also reduce the number of steps to solve certain problems that can be easily calculated through Qubits. Certain possibilities that could take advantage of Qubits include stuff like simulations, searching, or hacking.

Disclaimer: This explanation of Qubits is very over simplified and only serves as a general introduction. If you want to learn about Bloch spheres, entanglement, Schrodinger's Equation and all the other fun, mind bending quantum mechanics stuff, feel free to research them on your own. Who knows, maybe they'll come up at...

QuBIT: also called Quiz Bowl Invitational Tournament, chances are your NJQB inclined mind has heard all about it. QuBIT, which will be on February 22nd, is the annual quiz bowl tournament run by High Technology High School in Monmouth County New Jersey, who has a great six year track record of tournaments with good logistics, scheduling and staffing. The tournament, being an invitational tournament, attracts all of the best teams from the tri-state area for a day of high quality competition.

So you may be asking yourself, "That sounds cool and scary that my talents will be put to the test against really stiff opposition, but why SHOULD I QuBIT?"

A normal quiz bowl experience that form the basis of quiz bowl tournaments...

Basically you get to hear the BLAST question set and get better practice for nationals or even just the next regional competition. Also don't forget about the free breakfast of bagels and juice (you don't need any Qubits to compute that that's a good deal).

What are special about the questions at QuBIT? Well, for starters, four alumni from High Tech are on the writing team for the BLAST, and since they're all from New Jersey, you know that quality is guaranteed (also the fact that all of the other writers are very experienced and worked very hard for a long time helps a lot too). Like RAFT, this set belongs to the mACF family, meaning that you can expect BARGES with one minor exception: the R. While RAFT is a "regular difficulty" question set, BLAST is considered "regulars plus" difficulty. The length and general topic distribution will be roughly the same between the two sets, but expect some lesser known concepts to come up or for the obvious clues that you are all probably used to hearing by now to pop up closer to the end of the tossups. Some of you may have your doubts on whether this is a good thing, but think of it rather like adding 10 pound weights to the bar. Just like how you need to bench press tougher weights to grow your muscles bigger, you need to answer tougher questions to grow your brain bigger. Playing against some fiercer competition at QuBIT in the form of some of the elite schools from our region will also be great experience for seeing how you stack up against the best of the best. Right now you are in a superpositional state, and you won't be able to find out just how great you are or can be until you measure yourself by competing at QuBIT!

Disclaimer: This explanation for QuBIT and BLAST is very over simplified and only serves as a general introduction. If you want to experience BLAST, High Technology High School and all of the great hardworking people volunteering and on their team, just wait until the tournament!

Good luck to everyone on their quests studying Qubits and studying for QuBIT!

By Nick Zhang, Teterboro