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spin-½
Sign in to savethumb|A single point in space can spin continuously without becoming tangled. Notice that after a 360° rotation, the spiral flips between clockwise and counterclockwise orientations. It returns to its original configuration after spinning a full 720°.
Article
14 sectionsContents
- Stern–Gerlach experiment
- General properties
- Connection to the uncertainty principle
- Mathematical description
- Complex phase
- Non-relativistic quantum mechanics
- Observables
- Relativistic quantum mechanics
- Observables
- History
- See also
- Notes
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|A single point in space can spin continuously without becoming tangled. Notice that after a 360° rotation, the spiral flips between clockwise and counterclockwise orientations. It returns to its original configuration after spinning a full 720°.
In quantum mechanics, spin is an intrinsic property of all elementary particles. All known fermions, the particles that constitute ordinary matter, have a spin of . The spin number describes how many symmetrical facets a particle has in one full rotation; a spin of means that the particle must be rotated by two full turns (through 720°) before it has the same configuration as when it started.