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How Quantum Computers Break Encryption | Shor's Algorithm Explained

minutephysics · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Quantum computingCryptography

What it is

MinutePhysics explains Shor's algorithm, showing how a quantum computer factors large integers by finding the period of a number modulo N. It walks through the modular arithmetic and number theory that give the exponential speedup over classical factoring, and why this threatens encryption.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters point to it as a clear, approachable explanation of Shor's algorithm and what quantum computers actually do.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “Minute Physics has a really good explanation of Shor's algorithm, and by proxy, Quantum computing.”

    Really good explanation of Shor's algorithm and quantum computing

    glandium, 2019-10 · Recommendation · in “Quantum supremacy: the gloves are off”

  2. “There's also this video which walks through how quantum computers solve a very specific factoring problem”

    Walks through quantum factoring that classical computers cannot match

    xmprt, 2021-06 · Recommendation · in “What makes quantum computing so hard to explain?”

  3. “Also Minute Physics video for the Shor's Algorithm is good explaination”

    Good explanation of Shor's algorithm

    diginova, 2023-04 · Recommendation · in “Quantum Computing 101”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: shor's algorithm, quantum factoring, cryptography, modular arithmetic

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