A Question on Spinors in a High school textbook

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of spinors, particularly in the context of a high school textbook question related to rotational motion. Participants seek to understand the nature of spinors, their definitions, and their relevance to quantum mechanics and relativity.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses confusion regarding a qualitative question about spinors encountered while revising rotational motion and requests a rough idea of what spinors are.
  • Another participant mentions that the spinor depicted in the accompanying diagram is not directly related to quantum mechanics.
  • Several participants ask for a comprehensible definition of a spinor suitable for their current understanding.
  • A participant specifies that for the purposes of the exercise, the definition of a spinor is based on the object shown in a particular diagram from the textbook.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the need for clarification regarding the definition of spinors, but there is no consensus on a clear, comprehensible definition or the relationship of spinors to quantum mechanics.

Contextual Notes

Participants have not yet established a shared understanding of the term "spinor," and the discussion includes varying interpretations of its relevance to the question posed in the textbook.

Falgun
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TL;DR
Question from Resnick Halliday Krane Chapter 8: Rotational kinematics
While revising Rotational motion, I came across a qualitative question which blew me away. Meaning I couldn't even understand the question let alone answer it😅. It has to do with these objects called spinors which as I understand are evoked in quantum mechanics and Relativity. I am attaching the question so kindly go through it. It would be really helpful if you could give me a rough idea of what spinors are. If you could throw in a visualisation or gif then even better. It's question no. 9 .
 

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The spinor in tnis case is shown in the diagram. It's not directly related to QM.
 
So what exactly is a spinor? Like can you give me a definition which would be comprehensible to me at this stage?
 
Falgun said:
So what exactly is a spinor? Like can you give me a definition which would be comprehensible to me at this stage?
The problem deals with the object in diagram 8-13. For the purposes of this exercise, that is the definition of a spinor.
 

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