There was great episode on PBS space time about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWlk1gLkF2Y
In short it doesn't rotate, it just has magnetic field that behaves as if the source was spinning charge
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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The electron is rotating in the sense that it resists a tilting force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdN1mweN2ds
Disclaimer: My knowledge of physics ends at the high school level.
I studied (a single course...) at university level and I think you understood at least as much as I did.
Apparently there is an experiment where they get an object suspended in water to rotate when being bombarded by electrons with the same spin.
Although my physics knowledge is probably less than the average highschool level.
- Ok, so is it correct to say it has some rotation properties?
- Hahaha, oh no. Nonononono. No. Not at all correct no. However, it's the best we've got so yeah that's what we're going with.
A ball, however tiny, has 3 dimensions, it has a surface that moves around a mathematical point at the center of the sphere.
A point of zero dimensions has no diameter nor perimeter, no surface with which to spin. Yet when influenced by a magnetic field, a point-like indivisible particle behaves as if it does spin.
As Chief Brody might say, we're gonna need a bigger math!
How about imaginary numbers and the complex plane?
Now add the Uncertainty Principle, just for shits 'n' giggles!
Probability space! Probability amplitudes and polarizations!
The way I understood it (probably wrong): imagine if a point like thing, but is actually a wave, hits something else. It will leave a trace on the detector curving in a certain direction. This is interpreted as angular momentum aka spin.
There are also things like Hydrogen Fine Structure , that behaves as though it is a ball that actually spins. 🤷
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Ah yes the spin
It's only half spinning too.
The trick is to accept it without thinking about it
It's actually kind of liberating when you manage to do that.
It's not true, but if you pretend it is, it allows you to do all kinds of math. Follow the rules as if the spin were real and there were real momentum and it allows you to predict things that you can test. It's almost like looking at a really good magic trick, where you know that what you seem to be seeing isn't possible, but the magician is manipulating things so that your brain can anticipate what's coming next.
Shut up and calculate!
I've always understood it more like a cake that's moist, but it's not a cake and it's not moist.
The middle finger is for B field. The thumb is reserved for force. The index finger is for current. 🎵
I am imagining a glorious unibrow
Lozenge's Thumb Rule
And if you're lucky it doesn't exist at all.
How about:
"Imagine you have ADHD, but you're forced to sit in place."
Would that work?
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