Spin State

[Emily_Stenzler_2H]

Does anyone know how the value 1/2 was determined to be used for spin state ( since spin state can only be +1/2 or -1/2)? Does this value have any significance ?

[Sean Wang 1F]

I'm not entirely sure but I looked it up online and it says that the value is 1/2 because because a particle needs to be fully rotated twice before having getting to the same initial configuration.

[Taha 2D]

the way it was calculated is well beyond our scope but the experiment which found out about the number 1/2 is the Stern–Gerlach experiment(experiment with the deflected silver atoms discussed briefly in a lecture). Spin is known as intrinsic angular momentum and its not actually referring to particles spinning. All we need to know is that there are 2 states in which paired electrons can be in(the number itself isnt important right now). (fermions have 1/2 -1/2 spins not every particle)

[Jaclyn Schwartz 1I]

I would assume because in an orbital there is 2 options of which way it "spins". So +1/2 and -1/2 is to differentiate between them

[Jacob Schwarz-Discussion 3I]

I don't think you will use it mathematically, but knowing how to find either the +1/2 or -1/2 spin state is important!

[Edward Castro]

being able to identify the +1/-1 would be the best way to follow spin state

[Chinmayi Mutyala 3H]

I don't think we need to know about the specifics of how we got the value exactly; just that + means upward spin and - means downward spin.

[jia207]

Knowing the spin state differentiates the atom from another atom. No two atoms are allowed to have the same configuration which is why this is important.

[205323697]

Just to clarify, when we do the spin state we have to first fill out all of the orbitals before putting two states together, right?