I can't seem to think of any way to envision electron spin. Can it be thought of as the uncertainty in angular momentum?
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4"I can't seem to think of any way to envision electron spin." -- Nobody can ;-) – Manishearth Sep 15 '13 at 17:12
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Essentially a duplicate of http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/1/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Sep 15 '13 at 17:42
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No. There are two different types of an angular momentum. First is connected with the coordinate representation, so it can be interpreted from classical mechanics point of view. Second isn't connected with coordinate representation, but it exist in every particle of the free field (i.e., is an own angular momentum) which you have tested. They are the principal different types of an angular momentum. From the QM position, they both are the eigenvalues of the representations of 3-rotation generator, but first refers to reducible, and second - to irreducible representations.
Maybe it's more convenient for you to compare the spin and electrical charge. Mainly we don't ask about origin of charge and don't interpret it as the result of other quantity. It is independ quantity, and it's existence leads to electromagnetical interaction. Also, the existence of spin (it's value) leads to some spin interaction (simplistically can imagine as result of Fermi-Dirac or Bose-Einstein statistics.
Also, we can make an analogy between the quantum spin of particle and an own angular momentum (classical spin) of the system of particles. First and second aren't connected with motion the particle (or system) as whole.
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The intrinsic angular momentum of electrons, protons, neutrons etc cannot be explained in terms of rotating mass - but rotation may nonetheless be involved since h/4(pi) is a factor that can be related to angular momentum uncertainty
Darrel
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