The surprising reason behind electron ‘spin’! (They don’t REALLY spin)

Electrons don't really spin. Yet, every chemistry teacher will tell you they do. Everyday. Why do they do that? What does the 'spin' really mean?

In this video, we will explore the idea of spin angular momentum. We will see how electrons precess in the presence of an external magnetic field, just like how a spinning table top does.

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[Picasso_Picante]

59. I am 59 years old. Studied physics in high school and university. Read many many popular science books written by all the greats. And in 15 minutes you helped me understand something that never ever made sense to me. Thank you dear friend. You have a new subscriber.

[Summerisle]

I love your conversations with Einstein/Feynman etc. They really bring the concepts to life.

[nealharder]

I love how he refers to experiments that "we" have done, referring to us, team humans, and he's so excited to be on that team!!! Go us!!!! We can do incredible things!!!!

[dappy]

I love this guy, I genuinely NEED to see a gold play button somewhere in the background somewhere in the near future.

[jamesh]

This is a very good explanation.

As an old physicist I can say, I wish we had these powers of visualization decades ago. It took me years to establish a mental model for electron spin, and you’ve done it in a few minutes! To be fair, there was a lot more mathematics involved but an intuitive model is super useful.

Perhaps you can explore this further by talking about some of the experiments that established the existence of the electron and its spin and magnetic nature.

[brucehilton]

I was a practicing magnetic resonance spectroscopist in my career, and taught courses that focused on spin dynamics. So it's not an unfamitiar subject to me. Even so, Ifound your presentation insightful and pleasing. Good work.

[danilo]

This is an extremely well put and organized way to explain electron spin. I greatly appreciate the humor and the way of narrating through the whole story, and most importantly not omitting the smallest of details that fill in all the little gaps and ultimately form the full picture. Thank you so much for this video!

[I_Am_AI_]

“Individual pieces of cell aren't alive”

Mitochondria: 💀

[terencehawkes]

This is the first time I have ever heard such a clear explanation that I, a layman, can understand. Thank You!

[codingbloke]

What a brilliant way to explain this concept. I'm an avid watcher of physics youtube videos and have seen many that "explain" that quantum spin isn't really spin but most just leave it at that even when that is subject of the video. This "conversation with a physicist" style where you ask the obvious questions that I as viewer would have was really refreshing and informative.

I have seen much material already on this subject, I rarely learn anything new, I did today! Well done!

[bharathcarrom]

I had tried a lot to understand what the Spin really was before this, but had a hard time. This video has taken me the closest towards understanding it. Thank you. Now I think I can move from this reference point.

[shivukumar]

YouTube algorithm has finally understood me.

[jamesmckenzie]

I clicked on this randomly and I'm glad I did. You've finally explained electron spin in a way that I can understand and even believe. And with a sense of humour too. I've read about this stuff for a long time and yours is the first explanation that has worked for me. I think you are the first to take the time to not just skim over the peculiar details that need to be understood to make any sense of what spin is. Thank you, and I'm subscribing (and sharing) by virtue of this, the first of your videos that I have seen.

[clintanderson]

Legit. Tons of other vids and classes here, yet you still taught me something new--without math and based on intuition. Grow your channel, dude. Standing behind you.

[draelyc]

I love the way you laid the whole matter out in the form of a "conversation with the master." Very helpful for folks like me, who love to follow the subject but who've got no formal training ... and CERTAINLY don't have the mathematical ability!!! ... to engage the material directly. Thank you!

[MTWDD]

I love how you do your dialogues! It allows some pre-thinking and guessing, which makes it much more fun watching the video. Very creative!

[ignorasmus]

Think of electrons being politicians.
They "Behave" as if they care about people, but really, they don't and they can't.
😂

[laurie]

Fantastic video . I'm a 66 year old man with no physics qualifications at all but I've been reading quantum physics for the past 5 years just as a (unwinding) after work sort of thing I'm hooked on it I just can't get enough and I think your videos are just great thank you ( by the way I find the Richard Feynman lectures volume 1 2 and 3 a great read )

[christophercalvin]

The way that you walk through the concepts helps me to understand, and your enthusiasm is infectious! Thanks so much for your work on these videos!

[GuntherX]

I'm a chemistry student, and this is a topic I struggle a LOT to understand (my teachers just say "it makes sense when you apply general relativity"). So it's refreshing to see videos like this. Good job!