In classical mechanics, impulse (symbolized by J or Imp) is the integral of a force, F, over the time interval, t, for which it acts. Since force is a vector quantity, impulse is also a vector in the same direction. Impulse applied to an object produces an equivalent vector change in its linear momentum, also in the same direction. The SI unit of impulse is the newton second (N·s), and the dimensionally equivalent unit of momentum is the kilogram meter per second (kg·m/s). The corresponding English engineering units are the pound-second (lbf·s) and the slug-foot per second (slug·ft/s). A resultant...

In quantum computing and specifically the quantum circuit model of computation, a quantum gate (or quantum logic gate) is a basic quantum circuit operating on a small number of qubits. They are the building blocks of quantum circuits, like classical logic gates are for conventional digital circuits. Unlike many classical logic gates, quantum logic gates are reversible. However, it is possible to perform classical computing using only reversible gates. For example, the reversible Toffoli gate can implement all Boolean functions. This gate has a direct quantum equivalent, showing that quantum circuits...