Comment by ameliaquining
2 days ago
Does https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=208 help?
(Also, the factoring-21 result is from 2012, and may have been surpassed since then depending on how you count. Recent quantum-computing research has focused less on factoring numbers and more on problems like random circuit sampling where it's easier to get meaningful results with the noisy intermediate-scale machines we have today. Factoring is hard mode because you have to get it exactly right or else it's no good at all.)
Helps a bit thanks. I guess it's a bit like in x ray crystal diffraction you get light and dark patches depending on how the photon paths interacting with trillions of atoms add up, with a quantum computer you'd get light or dark outputs depending on how the amplitudes of trillions of calculations add up?