Naked Universe of Ana
patreon
Wave function and spin of ē
🕑 Added 2025-09-28 18:12:10 +0000 UTCNow let’s dig a bit deeper into the structure of particles.
Spin is basically like a built-in quantum magnet.
In the Stern-Gerlach experiment(on the pic), electrons are sent through a magnetic field.
Before the experiment, the logic was: if each electron has its own little arrow, the beam should smear into a stripe. Arrows could point in any direction, full 360°.
But in reality the beam always split into just 2 spots. Everyone freaked out, again physics didn’t match the expectation, lol. Turns out electrons only ever give two outcomes: spin up or spin down. No “in between.”
And here’s the crazy part: before you measure, the electron sits in a superposition - both up and down at the same time.
So its wave function actually holds both possibilities:
Ψ = ( ψ_up )
ψ_down
You put up a magnet, and it decides right there where to go. You never can know before, only probability, remember last Post?:)
Of course, spin is not the only property of a particle. Its position in space is described by other parts of the wave function too.
Pic credit
physicus-minimus.com
Comments
Thatbenjamincave
That’s wild that an electron can be both “up and down” - at the same time. It makes me question how stable anything is. Thank you!
Ana
That's was impressive...
Dylan H
This is lovely.
Dom
Damn! 😋
Pendolino70
Otto Stern was one of the brilliant minds that were purged from the German academia because of his religion and left immediately after Hitler‘s election. He knew that there are only two positions can be taken in a system with his background.
