excerpt from govtech today article
The U.S. also looks to develop a workforce with strong quantum information science skills, to be ready for what the future brings. One piece of that will be encouraging youth to develop this knowledge.
“We’re not familiar and comfortable with quantum mechanics, because we don’t experience it in our daily lives,” unlike classical physics, which we experience constantly, Tahan said.
But this could change. Tahan believes introducing children to the principles of quantum mechanics — and in a fun way — can help the next generation get familiar and comfortable with these concepts early on, making the field feel more intuitive.
Quantum mechanics involves a few core principles that students need to learn to wrap their minds around, and games that infuse these principles into their rules can get students used to this different kind of thinking, he said.
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), for example, developed a quantum chess game, as part of World Quantum Day, where players can make moves based on principles like superposition and entanglement.
“For example, players can decide to split their kings into a state of superposition, such that one king piece exists on two squares at once,” Caltech explains in an article. “If one player tries to capture their opponent’s superposed king on one of the two squares, then there is only a 50 percent chance the king is actually there.”
