Herbert Graf wrote:
>Hmm, AFAIK electrons DO have angular momentum, in the macro world we live
>in
>that means spin, is it different in the quantum world?

In a word, yes. Quantum spin exhibits the phenomenon known as
"space quantization", meaning that if you choose an axis and
measure the "spin" angular momentum of, say, an electron about
that axis, you will always get + or - 1/2 of Planck's constant.
If you think about it, that is really weird. What if you had
chosen an axis at 45 degrees from the first one? Then classically
you would expect to measure 1/sqrt(2) of the value you got from
the first axis, but in fact you will STILL get only + or - 1/2
of Planck's constant. There is no classical model of literal
spinning that will have this behavior. Thus physicists give up
on trying to think of the electron as a little "chunk of stuff"
and just accept that things are different in the subatomic world.

Michael V

Thank you for reading my little posting.


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