Spin State

[Nick Fiorentino 1E]

What do the +1/2 and -1/2 mean with regards to spin state? Is it the direction in which the electron spins? And how would the spin state be determined?

[005391550]

+1/2 refers to spin up and -1/2 refers to spin down because an electron can either be spin up or spin down. don't know how it would be determined tho

[Fatemah Yacoub 1F]

Calculating spin state is not necessary as it will always be either +1/2 or -1/2. The positives and negatives simply represent whether the electron is spinning clockwise or counterclockwise

[Audrie Chan-3B]

The direction the electron spins in depends on whether its positive or negative 1/2. Typically, positive means spinning right while negative spins left. You can find it through the up and down arrows when determining electron configuration.

[Kallista McCarty 1C]

Spinning up is referred to as +1/2 while spinning down is represented as -1/2

[Megan Ngai- 3B]

Spinning up is positive (+1/2)
Spinning down is negative -1/2

[Daria Azizad 1K]

I think the way that spin numbers are determined is experimentally based on which way they interact with a magnetic field. However, the way we denote spin numbers in a full shell is by having one up and one down (to indicate that they go opposite directions to minimize repulsion).

[Manav Govil 1B]

A +1/2 spin is spinning up, while a -1/2 spin is spinning down. Remember, this is not like the electron is spinning north or south if it is spinning up or down. They are spinning in different directions. That's about it.

[Nathan Nakaguchi 1G]

+1/2 refers to spin up and -1/2 refers to spin down. I believe it is a reference to what would happen if you performed an experiment similar to the one Dr. Lavelle showed in lecture Oct 16th (the silver atoms one). Some electrons end up going upwards after going through a magnetic field while some others go down.

[Jamie Hwang 2F]

If we have a full shell, what would the quantum number be? Do they cancel each other and it is zero (that doesn't really make sense) or is it just the last spin state (+ or - 1/2)?

[Rory Simpson 2F]

The total magnetic spin for the shell would add up to zero if it was full. Because of the Pauli exclusion principle (in that no two electrons can have the same exact quantum number configurations), an atom would need paired electrons with a positive and negative spin value in an full orbital.

[Yiyang Jen Wang 4G]

There's no universal notion of "up" or "down", they just represent the two directions. +/- is just for you to distinguish the difference between the two paired electrons. I believe it does not really matter which is which.

[Chantel_2I]

A +1/2 electron and a -1/2 electron would react differently when exposed to a magnetic field. This number differentiates between the two electrons, but it doesn't literally mean that they are moving in a specific direction.

[Ruby Richter 2L]

Do the positive and negative values relate to the arrows he draws in class? I'm confused as to how that relates to the spin state.

[KBELTRAMI_1E]

Let's talk about spin. What is even going on and how do we know if it's positive or negative?

[Brittany Tran 3I]

the positive and negative values are arbitrary. generally, the electron with +1/2 will be the arrow that's pointed upwards, and the electron with -1/2 will be the arrow that's pointed downwards, just for notation

[Jason Wu 1E]

Let's talk about spin. What is even going on and how do we know if it's positive or negative?

The spin is determined by how many other electrons are in the outermost subshell of the atom. If the subshell is less than half-filled, then electrons with positive spin will fill out the subshell until it is half-filled. If the subshell is more than half-filled, then electrons with negative spin will fill out the subshells until all the orbitals in the subshell are full. An exception comes when electrons from a higher s/d orbital may be used in a lower energy state to first fill out a lower energy state d or f orbital if it is 1 electron away from being half-filled or full.

[chrischyu4a]

Do the positive and negative values relate to the arrows he draws in class? I'm confused as to how that relates to the spin state.

The positive and negative values don't necessarily correlate to a certain direction such as "up" or "down" that most people refer to, it just conveys the fact that electrons will either spin one way along an axis or the opposite way along the same axis. And yes, the arrows he drew in class are a basic representation of what the positive and negative values mean.