What is the spin of a particle?
In: Physics
Spin is a type of intrinsic angular momentum which some fundamental particles have. Angular momentum is basically the rotational equivalent of momentum, in classical physics the heavier an object and the faster it is spinning, the greater its angular momentum.
Electrons and other fundamental particles have spin, this acts exactly like angular momentum but it can’t be taken away from the particle, it is intrinsic to that particle. This means that mathematically it is very similar to the particle spinning around, for example in electrically charged particles like electrons the spin generates a magnetic field. This is just an analogy though, nothing is physically spinning.
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