Explain how quantum computing works.
This can get mathy so we have to be careful here.
Let's start with probabilistic nature of quantum phenomena:
X. is investigating a murder of his friend. There are two suspects but X. can't find out which one is the real culprit. There's a rumour that there's a new unbelievable crime-solving quantum computer being devised at the university. X gets there at night, feeds the computer with all the data and waits for the result.
To get to the next section, reader has to solve a sudoku problem, which is a metaphor of the quantum computer:
123456789
A *2***1854
B *6***2*9*
C *9*******
D 2****6***
E ***2*5***
F ***4****7
G *******8*
H *4*6***2*
I 1835***6*
The digits at positions C5 and G6 give a number of the following chapter.
The solution is 91.
Chapter 32 describes how the culprit was captured and is about to be executed.
At the last moment scientist from the university rush in and ask the investigator to solve the sudoku again, this time with digit 3 at position F5.
This time the result is 44 and leads to a different chapter, where a different culprit is identified.
Takeway: Quantum computing is inherently probabilistic. It can give wrong answers, but if you run the program many times, correct answer will appear more often than wrong answer.