Ask HN: Wave interference computing?

1 pointhippich1 comment

So after watching something about quantum computers, I somehow thought about patterns waves make interfering with each other. I was wondering if that could be used for data compression and/or computing, but could not find anything.

Does it make sense and if does - could someone give me keywords to use for search please? :)

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Probably the most famous quantum computing algorithm, Shor's algorithm for finding prime factors, uses interference to arrive at its result, the very rough layman's version (about what I can understand! :) being that the amplitudes for unwanted results cancel out through interference. See http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=208

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