Science

How the hell does a quantum computer work?
 
^ A normal computer keeps track of data through bits, which can be in a state of either 1 or 0, but only one of those at a time. A quantum computer uses (or would us) "qubits" which can represent a 1, 0, or (using superposition), both of those states at the same time. A computer with n number of bits can be in one of 2^n states at a time, but a computer with n number of qubits can be in any number of 2^n states, essentially increasing the amount of memory and processing power exponentially.

That is a very simplified explanation. Clarify and expand upon that here.
 
https://pic.armedcats.net/h/he/heathrow/2010/10/01/AnEarthlike_planet.jpg
An artist's impression of Gliese 581g and its parent star​

BBC News - 'Goldilocks planet just right for life'
BBC News said:
By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News

Astronomers have detected an Earth-like exoplanet that may have just the right kind of conditions to support life.

Gliese 581g lies some 20 light-years away in its star's "Goldilocks zone" - a region surface temperatures would allow the presence of liquid water.

Scientists say that the newly found world could also potentially have an atmosphere.

Their findings, made with the Keck telescope in Hawaii, appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

The researchers, from the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, have been studying the movement of the planet's parent star, a red dwarf called Gliese 581, for 11 years.

Their observations have revealed a number of exoplanets spinning around the star.

* continues *

The Milky Way, our small corner of space, is over 100,000 light years across. This one is only 20 light years away, practically next door. :lol:

(I'm disappointed that it isn?t referred to as a ?class M planet? :sad:)
 
^ A normal computer keeps track of data through bits, which can be in a state of either 1 or 0, but only one of those at a time. A quantum computer uses (or would us) "qubits" which can represent a 1, 0, or (using superposition), both of those states at the same time. A computer with n number of bits can be in one of 2^n states at a time, but a computer with n number of qubits can be in any number of 2^n states, essentially increasing the amount of memory and processing power exponentially.

That is a very simplified explanation. Clarify and expand upon that here.

Schrodinger's hard drive?
 
I just wanna know how they measure surface temperature of a planet that's 20 light years away xD
 
I just wanna know how they measure surface temperature of a planet that's 20 light years away xD

It's most like an estimation based off the star's intensity and the planet's distance from it. NASA is pretty good at these kinds of estimations.

It is also probably one of the most significant finds in human history if it is actually earth-like. I volunteer to be on the first flight there on a nuclear powered rocket.
 
At our current technology I think they'd have to send like 8 couples who then will have children, and those children (from the different couples to avoid inbreeding) will have children too... and perhaps those reach the planet.
 
At our current technology I think they'd have to send like 8 couples who then will have children, and those children (from the different couples to avoid inbreeding) will have children too... and perhaps those reach the planet.

More than that. At current speeds, it would take hundreds of thousands of years to reach it.

The only way we'd have a chance of seeing it is if we figure out how to get things to go really fast. Like, 0.999 the speed of light. Which would require unbelievable amounts of energy, because as you near the speed of light, your mass increases up to a factor of infinity (at the speed of light proper). To get up to that speed with today's technology would take (you guessed it) hundreds of thousands of years of constant full burn acceleration.
 
Don't forget hundreds of thousands of years of constant full burn deceleration to stop :lol:

To put 20 light years into perspective, that's about 1.26 million times the distance Earth-Sun or over 500 million times the distance Earth-Moon.
 
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Only needs a deeper look into ion propulsion, I've read that unlike conventional rockets, it doesn't need more and more energy to get faster, you turn it on and it just keeps accelerating at a constant rate with the same energy consumption. Also they look cool as hell

 
Even ion propulsion is subject to the laws of physics.
The spaceship's impluse gained by emitting particles out the back is as big as the impulse of the particles emitted. In other words, to get a space capsule to great speed you need to emit a huge amount of fast particles out the back. To go fast, you need a lot of energy. To go faster, you need even more energy. To go faster and faster you need more and more energy.
Wikipedia suggests emission speeds of roughly 100km/s, so to get to half the speed of light (ignoring relativistic effects) you would need to emit roughly 1500 times the capsule's mass plus the (significantly higher) amount to accelerate the massive amounts of particles you carry at any given stage. Getting that amount of energy is another story...


Oh, and conventional rockets accelerate faster and faster with the same energy consumption ... because they get significantly lighter while the thrust remains the same :tease: see acceleration profile of a puny Saturn V:

https://pic.armedcats.net/n/na/narf/2010/10/02/Apollo_8_acceleration.gif

You can even see centre engines being turned off (2, 5) to limit acceleration at the end of a stage that burns with otherwise constant thrust. Losing a lot of weight (= fuel) means same energy, more acceleration. With ion propulsion the loss of particles is negligible compared to the loss of fuel in conventional rockets, so the acceleration remains pretty much constant at the same energy output.
 
Must be interesting to go from 4 Gs to 0 instantly.
 
No one has posted it but. ?

That Thomas Dolby track includes Dr. Magnus Pike - he was a real and famous (was brilliant at explaining things on the TV in the UK) scientist.?
 
I may not know enough to contribute much to this thread, but I'm sure this belongs here. Apologies if some consider it older than the internet....

 
^ Dude it looked like your avatar was headbanging to the song! +REP!
 
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