this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Biggest one's I've seen pointed out are how it can affect quantum computing technology and how it might help us make nuclear fusion more attainable.
Quantum computing can be broken down by it's words. Quantum being a state that fluctuates, meaning it's not always one thing or another. Computing, well it's computing. Quantum computers then would be computers utilizing quantum mechanics in a way that I understand it as, if things are currently ran where a number can be one or zero, it could now be one AND zero at the same time. Currently this takes massive amounts of cooling as a computer chip trying to skirt the laws of physics probably runs a little extra hot. This tech could allow for massively reduced heat production once someone figures out how to factor it into the design of the parts that normally get hot. You gotta be a smart 5 year old to get it but that's my best attempt.
For nuclear fusion, the chemical reaction that occurs generates so much heat that, to contain the reaction to a size we can manage, we use more energy keeping it cooled and contained and going than we gain from harnessing it. If we can reduce the energy needed to keep it going, we could potentially have a less volatile and more sustainable source of energy that we've dreamed about as a species since we figured out what the stars really were.