Quantum physics. It’s the study of matter at its smallest level, but why is it so weird, and what makes it so mind-blowing? In this article, we’ll be covering the nature of our uncanniest science and exposing its secrets.

First, let’s look at the fundamental concept of superposition and its unique uses throughout science. Superposition is essentially the fact that quantum particles can exist in more than one state or be in more than one place at the same time… but when viewed they collapse into just one state. This is very important and foundational for quantum computing because these computers use qubits to represent both 0 and 1, speeding up computation time massively.

Next, entanglement. Entanglement is exactly as it sounds – two particles are “tangled” together – linked. This, in my opinion, is the weirdest property of quantum particles. This means that no matter the distance, no matter the obstacles, they share the same quantum state at all times.

Now, I want to explain what exactly quantum particles even are. Well, quantum particles are basically the fundamental particles of everything we know – matter and energy. This could be electrons, photons, quarks, etc.  This is how all of these particles work – in a very weird way.

Let’s converge to magnetism, because it’s very much related. Every electron (which, remember, are quantum particles) has a property called its “spin.” Most of these get paired together within an atom and cancel out. But some remain unpaired, and those build up and create the force we call magnetism.

So, that was pretty weird, right? The oddest part is that it’s the foundation of the universe. We, along with everything else, are built upon these things – the stuff we see is just built off of all these properties and concepts.