I can explain digital logic down to the electron in a MOSFET, but I can't come close to the same with quantum computing. This newsletter is a journal of my quest to learn the fundamentals of quantum computing and explain them on a human level.

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Issue 7.0, Apr 3, 2025

In today’s newsletter: A brief review on “spin” and discussions on fields as they relate to subatomic particles

I ended last week’s newsletter (issue number 6) by stating that I was going to get back to spin in today’s issue. Well, I’m not quite there yet. I’ve described electrons and other subatomic particles as infinitely small points that have a spere of influence, and this sphere of influence makes the particles appear to be little balls. In issue number 2, I even used beachballs, basketballs (and the beachketball) to illustrate particles, but I’ve only covered a part of the story.

Particle spin, if you remember, isn’t really a spin as in a spinning top or a spinning bicycle wheel, but it appears to be so when looked at with our giant eyes. It acts like a spinning ball except that it always spins at the same speed and comes in two spin states: spin up and spin down. A basketball can be spun to the left or to the right. That might be an analogy to spin up and spin down of a particle, but someone chose to call particle spins up and down. A ball can be spun faster or slower. If left spinning, it will slowdown and stop. Particles have a steady speed and never stop. Maybe that’s why they didn’t use left and right.

We can read this particle spin state at temperatures near absolute zero or with microwaves and strong magnetic fields. We can also change the particle spin states with the same tools. Reading and changing states is really important if you want something to be used for information storage or processing - like you would in a quantum computer.

Physics is Confusing

I have to introduce another quantum physics concept before I go much further with spin. This concept is called a “field.” Particles can be described as a particle, like a dust particle but infinity smaller. Particles sometimes act like waves. That’s what makes light so complex. Light works like a wave and it works as a particle, called a photon, which is essentially a small bundle of light energy. Light isn’t the only energy that comes in photon form. Not as commonly known is that any bit of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum can come in the form of either a wave or a photon. Light is a part of the electromagnet spectrum as are radio waves, so you can have photons of radio waves.

Why is it Called the Electromagnetic Spectrum?

If you pass an electric current through a wire, you will generate a small magnetic field. If you take a permanent magnet and pass it by a wire, you will make current flow in the wire. Current flow is the movement of electrons through a conductor (the wire). Also, if you send an electric current through a wire at the right frequency, the wire will give off radio waves. Point those radio waves at a different wire and an electric current will flow in that wire. Like a magnetic field, radio waves (ne, electromagnetic waves) work both ways too.

Collecting Small Magnetic Fields to Make it Stronger

If you wrap a coil of wire a lot of times and run a current through it, you will generate a larger magnetic field. The reason it gets stronger is because condensing the wire by coiling it in an organized manner condenses the magnetic field together.

Let’s say that you have a thousand feet of wire, stretched out straight, and you run an electric current through it. Doing so will create a magnetic field. The field will be fairly small at any point along the wire. If you take that same thousand feet of wire and carefully coil it up into the smallest possible space, the total magnetic field will be about the same, but it will be concentrated into the smaller area of the coil. We call this an electromagnet.

The longer the wire, the stronger the magnetic field. Also, the higher the voltage, the stronger the magnetic field. Using a long thin wire and high voltage, you can get a pretty strong magnetic field into a pretty small area. The magnetic field of an electromagnet is the same field as a solid conventional magnet. That’s why the magnetic force is called electromagnetism.

A Field in Action

Most of us have at one time in our lived played with magnets. If you never have, please go buy some toy magnets and play with them. It is a pretty amazing thing to have one magnet push another away without touching (if the same poles are closest) or one magnet pull the other in without touching (if opposite poles are closest).

That affect that one magnet has on the other is called the magnetic field. The funny thing is that in the year 2025, no one really knows why a magnetic field works. We just know that it does. We know a lot about what magnetic fields can do and we can use them for many things, but why? We don’t really know yet. It’s a bit like gravity. We know gravity works and we can use it for many things, but we don’t really know why it works.

We kind of get around not knowing by calling gravity and electromagnetism fundamental forces. There are four fundamental forces. Gravity and electromagnetism are two of the four and the other two are strong nuclear and weak nuclear. I’m not going to spend time today on any more about the last two forces, but I am going to talk about more about gravity and magnetism.

Fields: Action From a Distance

Gravity and electromagnetism are forces and they come in fields. We talk about the gravitational field and the magnetic field. The field is an area in which the force can influence something. Magnetic force can pull two objects together or push two objects apart, but it can only do that if the two object’s fields overlap - only if the objects are in each other’s field of influence. So, a field is a property of a thing that can influence another thing at a distance.

• Magnets can (because of electromagnetism) influence things at a distance without touching the thing

• Planets and stars can (because of gravity) influence things at a distance without touching

So you have things that can interact with other things from a distance without touching and with no visible evidence that the things should be able to affect the other things. That is what a field does.

Magnets and planets are not the only things with fields. Subatomic particles also have fields associated with them and these fields allow the particles to interact with other particles without touching. Remember this when I talk about “entanglement.”

Stay tuned. I’m not sure if next week will be about fields, entanglement, probability or back to spin. I’ll let you know in issue number 8.

In Summary…

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About Positive Edge LLC

Positive Edge is the consulting arm of Duane Benson, Tech journalist, Futurist, Entrepreneur. Positive Edge is your conduit to decades of leading-edge technology development, management and communications expertise.