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RESONANCE THEORY: PART VII What Is Spin?
By Mark Anderson Why Read: It's no secret that many secrets remain in the most fundamental of sciences: physics. And it's no news to the tech-minded members of SNS that physics discoveries provide the most fertile ground for the creation of new technologies and their related products. It should not surprise, therefore, that the nature of "spin" in the quantum world, while incorporated as a design aspect of many new and upcoming technologies, is not well understood. In this week's discussion, we will hope to resolve that problem with a proposal that also sheds new light on many other aspects of the fundamentals of the world around us. - mra ________ [. . .] and books that told me everything about the wasp, except why. - Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. - Nobel Physicist Richard Feynman
There are no particles. Let's begin by settling that question forever. Dedicated to Richard Feynman, Elie Cartan, Roger Penrose, John Cramer, and David Brin
(Note: I am using the British spelling of "programme" to indicate a long-term research plan.) The original insight of Resonance Theory, noted in the first paper of the series, was: "The laws of physics derive directly from the physical properties of space." In other words, contrary to then-current belief, space is neither just spacetime nor is it an empty void. The point of the Resonance Programme was to flip the science of physics 180 degrees: stop studying the "particle zoo" and start studying space itself, in order to better understand its many instantiations. (For a full listing of the papers and work to date in Resonance Theory, see "Upgrades" below.)
We're going to start this exploration by looking at the dogma of what is not true but is still taught today. For the sake of simplicity, we will restrict our subject to electron spin. Here is an illustration of a spinning electron sphere, showing spin up and down states:
Let's start by saying that we know, from experiment, that electrons are not little balls, and their spin is definitely NOT like the spinning of a top - i.e., what is shown here. Everyone knows this, yet we still use these pictures. |
