Comment from Andre Heinrichs
Time April 21, 2012 at 6:59 pm

Quite a lot to understand, but did I overhear or did John not answer whether Spin means that particles are actually spinning?

Comment from MaNo
Time April 21, 2012 at 7:01 pm

Yes, this one is a bit heavier than the “wow, cool aiplane”-style episodes :-)

As far as I remember he said that Spin is not intended to be interpreted literally. No turning and spinning going on there.

Markus

Comment from Chris
Time April 23, 2012 at 1:11 am

Great interview, but I was thinking the same: I really wanted to learn what is meant by the ‘spin’ of a fundamental particle’. Clearly it isn’t a physical spin, but exactly what does it represent. Anyway, thank you Markus. I’ve wondered about the Fine Structure Constant for years and this helps a little!

Comment from MaNo
Time April 23, 2012 at 5:40 am

Here is what Wikipedia says:

As the name suggests, spin was originally conceived as the rotation of a particle around some axis. This picture is correct so far as spins obey the same mathematical laws as quantized angular momenta do. On the other hand, spins have some peculiar properties that distinguish them from orbital angular momenta:

• Spin quantum numbers may take on half-odd-integer values;
• Although the direction of its spin can be changed, an elementary particle cannot be made to spin faster or slower.
• The spin of a charged particle is associated with a magnetic dipole moment with a g-factor differing from 1. This could only occur classically if the internal charge of the particle were distributed differently from its mass.

Does this help :-) ?

Markus

Comment from iota
Time April 25, 2012 at 10:44 am

Puh! Rauchwölkchen entsteigen meinem Eiweißcomputer…
Wieder eine tolle Folge mit einem super Gesprächspartner, der dies an für sich “unverständliche” oder besser “unanschauliche” Thema m.E. so gut es geht dem geneigten Hörer nahe bringen konnte.
Ich muss es mir einfach noch Mal in Ruhe anhören, für nebenher beim Auto fahren ist es doch etwas zu hirnverknotend…
;-)
Ich freue mich schon – wie wir Schwaben sagen: “saumäßig” – auf die weiteren Folgen!

Gruß
Jochen

Comment from frosch03
Time April 26, 2012 at 9:37 am

i’m so happy, that you’re doing this series on theoretical physics issues, thanks :)

btw, this short video on the higgs-boson might also be interesting
http://vimeo.com/41038445

Comment from Rick Pontefract
Time May 21, 2012 at 12:41 am

Another excellent podcast. Thanks for being a source of informative and interesting listening.

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Time July 9, 2012 at 4:01 pm

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Comment from Richard Bland
Time July 9, 2012 at 7:02 pm

Compact but clear – a very helpful tour of the position at the point of recording. Recent reports of a ‘Higgs like’ particle at 5 sigma suggest that an update will soon be needed.

Comment from MaNo
Time July 9, 2012 at 7:12 pm

I might do an update, but not any time soon.

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Time September 4, 2012 at 8:00 am

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Comment from Rocco Erne
Time September 26, 2012 at 10:58 am

A great episode and I look forward to the others. I’ve listened #93 two times and understand even more. Thanks for Omega Tau.

Comment from MaNo
Time September 28, 2012 at 6:06 pm

Thanks :-)

Comment from Anna Harry
Time October 20, 2012 at 6:29 pm

I would like to suggest a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhSP08KOtl8 String theory is simplified now.

Comment from Christoph
Time October 21, 2012 at 10:25 pm

Great episode! Thanks a lot to John Ellis.