Introducing quantum computing to high school students with Grover's search algorithm

The noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era is progressing rapidly and giving both physics researchers and quantum computing companies (and their investors) strong indications that we could be on the cusp of the next quantum revolution. In addition to pushing science forward, we cannot ignore the development of the future workforce. This paper provides a detailed description of a quantum computing activity used in a high school physics course that applies Grover's algorithm to solve Boolean satisfiability problems. The details of the algorithm are first presented before the activity is described. Based on informal feedback from students, a case is made that the described activity is an effective means of introducing the field of quantum computing to high school students that builds interest in the field to support the development of a future workforce.