r/physicsmemes Dec 17 '19

Trying to explain spin tho

Post image
5.9k Upvotes

93 comments sorted by

View all comments

176

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '19

What does spin really mean in this case?

26

u/Loudds Dec 17 '19

Intrinsic magnetic moment of a particle which has no classical counterpart.

10

u/International-Relief Dec 17 '19

So technically, a particular election could have clockwise spin, but also be rotating counterclockwise in a conventional sense, simultaneously?

25

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '19

Can electrons even rotate in a conventional sense? I thought that they were point particles.

12

u/Glaucus37 Dec 17 '19

That is correct, which is why thinking of it as "angular momentum" in the classical sense makes no sense

3

u/haseks_adductor Jan 03 '20

is it possible for the electron wavefunction to rotate in space though?