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inflector
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What does "spin degrees of freedom" mean?
In the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_ice" , I find:
I've searched on the web for "spin degrees of freedom" and gather from the comment that this has something to do with magnetism since it appears that the sentence defines a magnet as a substance with spin degrees of freedom; but I can't find any definition for the term "spin degrees of freedom" itself.
Can anyone give me a fairly simple laymen's definition of what this means? Failing that, a technical definition along with the relevant topics I'd need to research in order to understand the definition would be a good second-choice answer.
Thank you in advance,
Curtis
In the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_ice" , I find:
A spin ice is a magnet (i.e. a substance with spin degrees of freedom) with frustrated interactions, which shows low-temperature properties – in particular large residual entropy – closely related to those of crystalline water ice.
I've searched on the web for "spin degrees of freedom" and gather from the comment that this has something to do with magnetism since it appears that the sentence defines a magnet as a substance with spin degrees of freedom; but I can't find any definition for the term "spin degrees of freedom" itself.
Can anyone give me a fairly simple laymen's definition of what this means? Failing that, a technical definition along with the relevant topics I'd need to research in order to understand the definition would be a good second-choice answer.
Thank you in advance,
Curtis
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