• Question: Can quantum entanglement take place between objects which are much bigger in size? For example, can two telegram machines which are entangled be used to send messages instantly?

    Asked by shreyasharma to David on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: David Freeborn

      David Freeborn answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Hi shreyasharma,

      This is a really interesting question. The answer is: yes, it can. But it becomes more and more difficult to entangle objects, the less “quantum” they are, i.e. the bigger they are. One of the difficulties of quantum computing is trying to make a system of thousands of millions of quantum particles, and keeping the whole system entangled.
      There’s a lot of research being done on this right now, and it’s a really exciting area.

      Could we use it to entangle telegram messages- yes, we definitely could. It’s easier enough to code a telegram message as a series of “bits” (0’s and 1’s)- this is what normal computers do all the time, and we could in principle encode that as a quantum state. Then we could use it to send the message.

      I don’t think we could send a message faster than the speed of light though- Einstein’s theory of relativity says no information can travel faster than light, so I think that sets an upper limit on how fast we can transmit information.
      The good thing is that light travels very, very fast! (299 792 458 metres per second!)

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