Why do Electrons Have Spin?

Most recent answer: 06/16/2015

Q:
Why does spin happens?i mean it's rational that an electron has this this movement(I don't wanna say orbit) around the nuclear but I don't understand that why it has spin too(not only electron i mean any kind of particle)
- ana (age 13)
Iran
A:

No one really knows! We don't think that electrons are really "spinning" around, because as far as we know, electrons are infinitely small. There's not really anything to spin.

Even so, electrons do behave like they're "spinning" in experiments. Technically, they have "angular momentum," the type of momentum possessed by rotating objects. (You have angular momentum if you spin around in a chair.) We can measure this angular momentum and we call it spin, but we don't know why it's there. It seems to be a fundamental property of the electron, like its charge or its mass.

You can read more about spin in .

Rebecca H.


(published on 06/16/2015)