My understanding is that the “rotation” or “turning” of fundamental particles isn’t analogous to macroscopic objects, and that’s where I start to lose things. (not seeking an explanation today, just pointing out where QM goes all fuzzy for me)
The problem here is that rotation makes only sense for objects that have a size. So you can say “this is the left side” and “now this part rotated to the right”. This concept doesn’t make sense for a particle that is a literal dot. The spin is a characteristics of particles that mathematically behaves like a rotation (freely speaking), therefore we treat it like that. That doesn’t mean it is a rotation.
The only thing to keep in mind is that although particles are dimensionless (as far as we know), the do not exist without context. Spin relates to how a particle is linked to the rest of the world.
One way of seeing it is that spin can be represented by a “rotational polarisation” of the surrounding cloud of virtual particles.
There are geometrical objects called spinors which are basically vectors with a half spin. Interestingly, they were introduced before we realized they could describe spin of electron and other particles like it. Sometimes a purely theoretical mathematical concept suddenly turns out to be describing very real things.
My understanding is that the “rotation” or “turning” of fundamental particles isn’t analogous to macroscopic objects, and that’s where I start to lose things. (not seeking an explanation today, just pointing out where QM goes all fuzzy for me)
The problem here is that rotation makes only sense for objects that have a size. So you can say “this is the left side” and “now this part rotated to the right”. This concept doesn’t make sense for a particle that is a literal dot. The spin is a characteristics of particles that mathematically behaves like a rotation (freely speaking), therefore we treat it like that. That doesn’t mean it is a rotation.
The only thing to keep in mind is that although particles are dimensionless (as far as we know), the do not exist without context. Spin relates to how a particle is linked to the rest of the world.
One way of seeing it is that spin can be represented by a “rotational polarisation” of the surrounding cloud of virtual particles.
There are geometrical objects called spinors which are basically vectors with a half spin. Interestingly, they were introduced before we realized they could describe spin of electron and other particles like it. Sometimes a purely theoretical mathematical concept suddenly turns out to be describing very real things.