I don't think it's important to know how "amplitude" relates to the underlying mathematics. In the context of the comic, it is constrained by the following stat

I don't think it's important to know how "amplitude" relates to the underlying mathematics. In the context of the comic, it is constrained by the following statements: * A qubit is special because it's a superposition of "0" and "1" * A superposition isn't described by being "both" of them, or "maybe one or the other in weird ways"; it's "a complex combination" that's also a "unit vector" * Quantum mechanics is a generalization of probability * (Not in comic, but common knowledge) Any "event" has a certain "probability" that it will occur * Classical probability can only range from 0 to 1, along a straight 1D line * Quantum events are determined by the 2D probability "amplitude", where this word describes the superposition of "0" and "1" of the qubit above * (Common knowledge) Taking a measurement of a qubit or any other quantum system collapses the superposition * When you measure a qubit, there is a rule that converts the "amplitude" into a classical probability. In the case of a qubit, the "event" is whether it will be a "0" or a "1" * Because amplitudes are actually 2D (while the qubit is in superposition), the rules for adding two amplitudes are different than for adding two 1D probabilities. In particular, they can "interfere" and cancel out. Think of two vectors that point in opposite directions, or (1 + 0i) + (-1 + 0i) = (0 + 0i) Some of the above is probably cheating, since I read the other replies to this comment before rereading the comic. However, I think if you move even further away from the detailed math, the usage of "amplitude" is pretty clear. Non-quantum bits would have a "probability" of being measured as "0" or "1". A qubit in superposition has a certain "amplitude" that is analogous to probability, determining whether it will be measured as "0" or "1". Quantum computing exploits the special probabilities of this "amplitude" to do calculations you can't normally do, for very specific problems. It's very hard to keep even a few small qubits in the state of "superposition", which is required to exploit these properties.