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What is spin as it relates to subatomic particles?

I'm having a hard time grasping the concept of spin, my textbook describes it very vaguely:

Stable matter contains just three kinds of particles: electrons, protons and neutrons. In addition to orbital angular momentum, each of these particles also has an intrinsic angular momentum called spin. The spin angular momentum of a particle, like its mass and electric charge, is a fundamental property of the particle that cannot be changed.

I don't really understand what is meant by 'intrinsic angular momentum'. Is there an easier way of grasping spin?

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Ylyk Coitus
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  • Possible duplicate: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/1/2451 and http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/822/2451 and http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/147/2451 – Qmechanic Jan 31 '13 at 15:22
  • @Qmechanic Those are duplicates, I agree... however the answers aren't satisfactory at all, so I'm guessing spin is just another incomprehendible concept of QM. – Ylyk Coitus Jan 31 '13 at 15:37
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    Actually, yes, it is. – Martino Jan 31 '13 at 15:58
  • Dear Ylyk Coitus, "intrinsic angular momentum" is an angular momentum - the conserved quantity associated with the rotation of objects - that exists even if the center of mass of the object stays at the same place. Therefore, it's the internal rotation of a particle that is inseparable from it. As far as conservation laws go etc., it's thus exactly the same thing as the particle's spinning around an axis. However, detailed predictions of allowed values and evolution have to be done with full QM, not clas.mech. http://motls.blogspot.cz/2012/12/the-electron-is-spinning-after-all.html?m=1 – Luboš Motl Jan 31 '13 at 16:58

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