Fair warning -- parts of this are so over-simplified, I have transcended simplicity and am soaring through the fields of "technically incorrect"
If you are curious and want to really understand what the whole "Schrodinger's Cat" is really all about, this is a good article that gets it right: http://www.iflscience.com/physics/schr%C3%B6dinger%E2%80%99s-cat-explained/
I just chickened out when I was trying to think of a way to build off of wave/particle duality and explain quantum superpositioning to a high school student. So I left out a (very) important part of the story.
And quantum computing is only "faster" in certain applications. Real life is never the same as the theory. In the real world, you have to pay attention to such pesky things as temperature (and that's just scratching the surface). So although the theory of quantum computing speed potentially being "faster than the speed of light" is fascinating, pointing to the way quantum entanglement disrespects time and the "speed limit" of the speed of light, the reality is more complex.
So if another particle physicist comes along and says "um.... no.... that's.... not right...." I have to laugh pre-emptively and say "yes, I know" and invite that hypothetical physicist to explain everything from the wave/particle duality to quantum computing to a high school student, at the drop of a hat, live.
Seriously, I'd love to watch/listen. I'm always delighted to learn better ways to do things. Plus.... Physics is awesome!
Hi, it will be great if you can site your image sources and references for possible curation. Thanks. :)
Sure... I just wrote it up for fun. What's this "curation" business?
Hi, it is groups who upvotes original contents with proper references and sources. I am just suggesting though. :)
I received a follow up question from the high school student, wondering why scientists can't look at subatomic particles. Why can't they just X-Ray them or something.
The answer is really kind of fun, so I thought I'd share it here as well.
PART I:
"Inside the World's Most Powerful New Microscopes"
PART II: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151120-how-do-we-know-that-things-are-really-made-of-atoms
"How do we know that things are really made of atoms?"
PART III: "The small size of subatomic particles is perhaps most convincingly expressed not by stating their absolute units of measure but by comparing them with the complex particles of which they are a part. An atom, for instance, is typically 10−10 metre across, yet almost all of the size of the atom is unoccupied “empty” space available to the point-charge electrons surrounding the nucleus. The distance across an atomic nucleus of average size is roughly 10−14 metre—only 1/10,000 the diameter of the atom. The nucleus, in turn, is made up of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons, collectively referred to as nucleons, and a single nucleon has a diameter of about 10−15 metre—that is, about 1/10 that of the nucleus and 1/100,000 that of the atom. (The distance across the nucleon, 10−15 metre, is known as a fermi, in honour of the Italian-born physicist Enrico Fermi, who did much experimental and theoretical work on the nature of the nucleus and its contents.)" From the Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/subatomic-particle