The Entangled Love of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl
Separated by the Silver River, two lovers entangle starlight to send what no magpie could carry: a quantum state, teleported across the heavens.
The tales
Four tales, four algorithms
Each story pairs a classic fairy tale with the quantum algorithm its plot always wanted. Read the tale, then run the algorithm yourself.
Goldilocks and the Quantum Spoon
Constant or balanced? Rather than risk a scalded tongue, Goldilocks runs the Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm and finds the just-right bowl in one query.
Ali Baba and the RSA Keys
The cave’s “Open Sesame” is an RSA key, and forty thieves trust the math until Ali Baba factors it.
Tortoise vs. Hare — Quantum Rematch
The oldest race in fable, rerun. Hare is faster than ever, so Tortoise searches every path at once for the shortest way to the finish.
Ways to read
Read it your way
The stories stand on their own, and the quantum is there when you want it: a QR code appears in each tale the moment its hero runs the algorithm.
For story-lovers
Just read
Curl up with the illustrated PDF, or read the living manuscript in Google Docs. No physics required; the fables carry you.
For the curious
Follow the QR codes
Scan the code where the magic happens and land in a Jupyter notebook. Read the circuits, variables, and outputs, or run everything in your browser.
For quantum folk
Improve the code
Review the code and the citations. Suggest wording in the Google Doc, where final phrasing stays with the author, or open a pull request and join the contributors.
Preview
Leaf through the book
The first edition is free to read here, download, or share: all four tales and every illustration.
The preview loads the whole book (a 41 MB PDF) on this page. On a phone, the PDF button below works better.
Behind the book
Old stories, new purpose
Quantum Tales began with a grant from the Unitary Fund, whose open-source mission is to bring quantum to everyone. The Qiskit community ranked the algorithms they found most interesting, and that ranking shaped the book.
The project serves two goals: sharing quantum with new audiences and carrying countries’ stories across borders. Every retelling keeps its roots. The original tale ships alongside the code, and if a story is new to you, read it first.
Larissa Sharina painted the cover and every illustration. Asked to illustrate a fairy-tale book and then handed quantum computers, she researched them and brought the vision to life.
Have thoughts, corrections, or a tale that deserves a quantum twist? Write to spence@duck.com or open an issue.