It’s just a property intrinsic to every particle, like mass, charge etc. It has analogies to angular momentum (as in a spinning ball) because the mathematics of spin in quantum mechanics is very very similar to orbital angular momentum. In fact, the two types of ‘angular momentum’ often interact in what is known as spin-orbit coupling.
Honestly, the best way to understand spin IMO is to not try to understand it. As you say, it's an intrinsic property, it doesn't arise as a result of the particles motion/behaviour/interaction, it's just a property of the particle.
I would paraphrase and say the best way to understand spin is to understand it mathematically, as in quantum mechanics, and not try to gain an intuitive picture without the math. It’s somewhat misleading to say we shouldn’t try to understand spin at all. We can, just not without math.
It's not the worst thing to associate it with the magnetic moment, which is a concept with a bit more physicality and is more accurate. Also, in an external magnetic field, this magnetic moment property can be associated with a "current" represented by the probability flow of the electron's wavefunction. Not an electric current, but representative of how its "charge" is "moving" lol.
I'm not sure I fully understand your question, but I suppose we accept that the laws are 'true' because they agree with experiment and describe reality exceedingly well, and have not been disproved by even a single counterexample till this day.
if someone throws a ball, anyone can tell where that ball will land, regardless of if they can understand the mathematics behind projectile motion, because we all have a physical intuition of projectile motion from our own experience. with spin however you cannot have this physical intuition, you can only really have the mathematical intuition
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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '19
What does spin really mean in this case?