The Heights School Co-Class visit the South Australian Museum

The Heights School Co-Class visit the South Australian Museum

As part of an integrated unit on ecosystems the
co-class visited the South Australian Museum on Friday
September 5, 2003.

The class followed the marine trail that was lead by an Education Officer, Simon. The class will follow this by schoolwork and a trip to Noarlunga Reef in October.

Quantum Computing

On 19th August, Dr Jason Twamley from Ireland visited The Heights School to speak with the Year 8 and Year 10 Ignite classes as well as Senior School Physics students. Dr Twamley's field of expertise is Quantum Computing. He has done a great deal of research and was happy to give the students a brief overview of some of his knowledge in this field.

The binary bit, classically represented as a 0 or 1 is the fundamental unit of information used in today’s computers. All information can be described using a string of 0’s and 1’s and is stored via magnetization on a hard disc or via the charge on a capacitor.

In a quantum computer the fundamental unit of information is called a quantum bit (or a qubit). A qubit obeys the laws of quantum physics rather than the laws of classical physics. A qubit can exist not only in a state corresponding to a 0 or 1, but it can exist simultaneously as a 0 and 1, with a numerical coefficient representing the probability of each state. (Quantum physics requires a different type/level of thinking).

This ability to exist simultaneously as a 0 or 1 enables quantum computers to operate at enormous speeds and perform seemingly impossible calculations.

As an example a quantum computer can find the factors of a number with approximately 10200 digits (eg a number with two hundred zeros after it).

The premier application of quantum computing is in the field of encryption, but its power can open the door to many new scientific and technological advances.