Quantum tic-tac-toe
educational game about quantum mechanics
Quantum tic-tac-toe is a "quantum generalization" of tic-tac-toe in which the players' moves are "superpositions" of plays in the classical game. The game was invented by Allan Goff of Novatia Labs, who describes it as "a way of introducing quantum physics without mathematics", and offering "a conceptual foundation for understanding the meaning of quantum mechanics".
Background
The motivation to invent quantum tic-tac-toe was to explore what it means to be in two places at once. In classical physics, a single object cannot be in two places at once. In quantum physics, however, the mathematics used to describe quantum systems seems to imply that before being subjected to quantum measurement (or "observed") certain quantum particles can be in multiple places at once. (The textbook example of this is the double-slit experiment.) How the universe can be like this is rather counterintuitive. There is a disconnect between the mathematics and our mental images of reality, a disconnect that is absent in classical physics. This is why quantum mechanics supports multiple "interpretations".
The researchers who invented quantum tic-tac-toe were studying abstract quantum systems, formal systems whose axiomatic foundation included only a few of the axioms of quantum mechanics. Quantum tic-tac-toe became the most thoroughly studied abstract quantum system and offered insights that spawned new research.
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