![]() Spin is therefore a completely quantum mechanical property of a particle, and cannot be explained in any way by classical physics.Īrtist's representation of the spin and charge of an electron The spin of composite particles (such as protons, neutrons and atomic nuclei) is just the sum of the spins and orbital angular momentum of the constituent particles, and is therefore subject to the same quantization conditions. it could only take certain discrete values. When spin was first discovered in 1922 by Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach, however, their experiments indicated that the intrinsic angular momentum, or spin, of a particle such as an electron was quantized i.e. In general, though, spin obeys the same mathematical laws of angular momentum as do spinning objects in classical physics (such as the Earth, for instance), and there are really only two important aspects to consider: the speed of rotation and the direction of the axis it rotates about (referred to as “up” and “down”). To return to the property of spin of fundamental particles, mentioned briefly in the previous section, spin can perhaps be most easily thought of as a rotation of particles around their own axis, although this is in fact something of a simplification, and in reality it is impossible to tell whether something as small as an electron is spinning at all. - Spin and the Pauli Exclusion Principle.- Quantum Tunneling and the Uncertainty Principle.- Superposition, Interference and Decoherence. ![]() - Probability Waves and Complementarity.- Quantum Theory and the Uncertainty Principle Introduction.Main Topics > Quantum Theory and the Uncertainty Principle > Spin and the Pauli Exclusion Principle Topic Index: ![]() A Few Random Facts Where in the universe is the Earth? How fast are we traveling through space? How fast does light travel? How far is it to space, the Moon, the Sun, the stars, etc? How many stars are there? How does the Sun shine? What different types of stars are there? What is the human body (and the Earth, the Sun, the Universe) made of? How many molecules/atoms are there in each cubic meter? What if the history of the universe were squeezed into the period of one year? What are the coldest and the hottest objects in the universe? What is the electromagnetic spectrum? What is a planet? What is a dwarf planet? Why do the planets orbit the Sun? ![]()
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