Time: Generalized concept

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“Time is nothing but a stubborn illusion”

The word time is, one of the most frequently used word. Valued and procrastinated, understood and misunderstood, thoughtful and worthless everything is influenced by time. Although we might be so familiar with time. The word itself is very ambiguous. But the use is very similar, most of the available dictionaries stated time as a “period” but digging deeper into it, produces very ambivalent descriptions. But when you dig more deep, you can only see one source coming up. You realize, Time is very uncertain in itself, it is always in motion. Continuously and swiftly bewitching our life. It is valued, interpreted, sensed, every-time, but one thing for sure, is, “measurement” which is no bewildering aspect of time vivid and clear. Time means measurement from smallest to the largest quantities, it is a quantitative subject of fascination. Time most of us, can be thought as “periodic”. The beats, the frequency something that has rhythmic approach.

Understanding “Periodic”

Let us talk about days, Days they are regular. For a normal human being, Days might not appear periodic. You know, when boredom strikes, your days unwillingly get long. Unfortunately, science never cared about your personal opinions. So how do I know, if your days are periodic, regular? One of the easiest way to do would be, doing as your parents do with you and your friends, “Comparison”. Looking at any other periodic phenomenon at the same time with days.
            The experiment here can involve anything that is regularly going on. Droplets of water, hourglass, anything, just make sure it is regular. For instance, take hourglass, and look after it how many will it takes the sand from the upper body to completely get into the lower one. Do this at any time maybe when sun is at any particular degrees and stop at some specific degrees. Take your samples, maybe for a week, and compare it. Compare the hourglass with sun, compare your samples with other samples. If they look similar (They do), congratulations we now have your answer, about your skepticism of regularity of periodic hours in a day.

Quantum Computing

Some phenomena of quantum mechanics might have a huge impact on human technology in the future, particularly in the form of quantum computers. A quantum computer is a computer using quantum superposition and quantum entanglement to improve its computing power. How?

In order to understand quantum computers, we first need to take a look at classical computers. The basic unit of information of classical computers is a bit. A bit can take one of two values: 1/0 (yes/no, on/off). Two bits may take one of four values (1 1/ 10/01/00), three bits one of eight values, four bits one of sixteen values, and so forth.

Quantum computers use a slightly different unit of information a qubit (quantum bit). Qubits are similar to bits, but with one significant difference due to quantum superposition. a qubit may take more values simultaneously! A qubit can thus be in a superposition of values 1 and 0. We could, for instance, create a qubit using an electron’s spin. Spin 1/2 could be assigned the value 1, spin -‘/2 the value 0 (or vice versa). As long as the electron is not observed, its qubit has both possible values.

However, if we add another qubit, the whole situation becomes even more interesting. Due to quantum entanglement, both qubits enter a superposition of four states. Qubits now take all four possible values (11, 10, 01 and 00) simultaneously. If we add another qubit, the whole quantum system of these three qubits can take eight values at the same time, and so forth. Each time we add a qubit, the number of possible superposed states doubles. The main difference between a classical and a quantum computer is thus in the number of states it takes. While any set of bits can only take one possible value at a time, the same set of qubits can take all of these values simultaneously.

But what is the consequence of this difference? Speed. Quantum computer is capable of solving certain tasks even a million times faster than a classical computer of comparable size for instance, a quantum computer composed of just twenty qubits can take 1048576 states simultaneously!

This may sound terrific, but there is a downside. Despite its tremendous speed, quantum computers will probably never entirely replace classical computers. The reason is simple any time a quantum system is observed, the wave function of this system collapses. This means that anytime we tried to use a quantum computer, there would inevitably be an interaction between us and the computer. This interaction would cause the superposition within the quantum computer to collapse, and its qubits would suddenly become mere classical bits.

Unfortunately, quantum computers are only suitable for specific, usually complex computations. During the computation, they must be isolated from their surroundings to prevent the superposition of their qubits from collapsing. A quantum computer basically divides each problem into many simpler calculations, which it then solves in parallel. Once the computation is finished, the computer is observed, which causes its superposition to collapse, and it provides us with just one result.

Quantum Tunneling

 About 150 million kilometers away from us, there is a huge sphere of hot plasma, which we call the Sun. Just like any other star, the Sun makes its energy by colliding lighter atomic nuclei to form a heavier element. This process, called nuclear fusion, is crucial for the existence of every single star in the universe.

However, there is a problem. The colliding nuclei are all positively charged, which means that they repel each other electrically. How do the nuclei fuse, then? There is another force the strong nuclear force which brings them together, but only when they are really close to each other to begin with. Therefore, the nuclei must have a huge energy (and thus velocity) in order to approach each other to the point where the attractive nuclear strong force surpasses the repulsive electrical force for nuclear fusion to occur. But when the temperature of the Sun was ascertained by its spectrum, it came to light that it does not even remotely reach the values necessary for nuclear fusion. In other words, the Sun simply should not shine whatsoever. This conclusion is obviously wrong the Sun evidently shines, for which we owe to a peculiar phenomenon of quantum physics quantum tunneling.

Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon wherein particles or even whole atoms have a certain probability of surpassing a barrier, even though they do not have enough energy to surpass it, which is unambiguously against the principles of classical physics. This phenomenon may not seem that peculiar at first sight, but the opposite is true. It would probably be quite strange if a person who run up against a wall appeared on the other side of the wall or even inside the wall. However incredible it may sound, this is essentially what happens to objects from the micro world during quantum tunneling.

Quantum tunneling can be explained using the principle of quantum superposition and the uncertainty principle. How? According to classical physics, the Sun does not have the sufficient temperature for atomic nuclei to approach each other enough for fusion to occur. However, the principle of quantum superposition states that the nuclei can be in more places at once (due to their wave nature), so there is a certain probability of them approaching enough and fusing. According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, on the other hand, there is always some uncertainty regarding the momentum of an object, so from time to time, one or both nuclei obtain an immense velocity (momentum) and fuse.

Quantum tunneling is one of a few phenomenon of quantum mechanics whose consequences we can hugely feel in the macro world as well. The structure of our own bodies, for instance, is determined by the DNA molecule. However, it has been theorized that protons within this molecule can experience quantum tunneling and therefore change our genetic makeup! These random genetic mutations caused by quantum tunneling may even be linked to the existence of cancer, but more research is needed. Tunneling also occurs during radioactive in flash discs.