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Terminology is not always unambiguous. The spin quantum number is discrete for electrons {-1/2,1/2}, but spin also means the physical entity that gives rise to
by cuspycode 6y ago
Terminology is not always unambiguous. The spin quantum number is discrete for electrons {-1/2,1/2}, but spin also means the physical entity that gives rise to the so-called intrinsic angular momentum, which is a vector.
- javajosh 6y agoI thought he was pretty unambiguous there. If we wants to talk about the underlying wave function before collapse, fine, its path in 2D space. But the measured spin only requires 1 bit. Note that the spin is NOT a 2D vector, but a path, which itself can described by a sequence of vectors. Yes yes, Bell's Theorem, EPR, collapse, and all, but I still think it was sloppy.
- n4r9 6y agoHonestly I'm not sure what your complaint is here. Or at least you seem to be very adamant that some particular interpretation/ontology is obviously the right one. In standard quantum theory, electron spin can be modeled by a 2 dimensional complex vector. It's also possible to model the spin of an isolated system using 3 dimensional real vector (the "Bloch sphere").