Qubit
In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit (sometimes qbit) is the basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classical binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, one of the simplest quantum systems displaying the peculiarity of quantum mechanics. Examples include: the spin of the electron in which the two levels can be taken as spin up and spin down; or the polarization of a single photon in which the two states can be taken to be the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization. In a classical system, a bit would have to be in one state or the other. However, quantum mechanics allows the qubit to be in a coherent superposition of both states/levels simultaneously, a property which is fundamental to quantum mechanics and quantum computing.
Quantum computing
A quantum computer operates on its qubits using quantum gates and measurement (which also alters the observed state). An algorithm is composed of a fixed sequence of quantum logic gates and a problem is encoded by setting the initial values of the qubits, similar to how a classical computer works. The calculation usually ends with a measurement, collapsing the system of qubits into one of the formula_2 eigenstates, where each qubit is zero or one, decomposing into a classical state. The outcome can, therefore, be at most formula_1 classical bits of information. If the algorithm did not end with a measurement, the result is an unobserved quantum state. (Such unobserved states may be sent to other computers as part of distributed quantum algorithms.)