How is spin measured experimentally ?

[xortdsc]

Hi,

this probably has been answered somewhere here already, but I was unable to find it.
Could someone explain how the spin of a particle is actually measured in an experiment ? Most interesting to me is how the 3d spin vector for 1/2 spin particles is determined experimentally.

Cheers.

 

[Vanadium 50]

It is impossible to measure a 3d spin vector - i.e. all three components - of anything.

 

[abitslow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_spin#Applications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern–Gerlach_experiment
Spin is NOT the physical rotation of a particle in 3 dimensional space, it would have avoided a LOT of confusion if they'd named it something like "gender" rather than "spin"... Please read the first paragraph of the "basic theory" section of the Stern-Gerlach Experiment article, above.

 

[xortdsc]

thank you. the Stern-Gerlach Experiment was helpful indeed.