Home The Times of India: Latest News India, World & Business News, Cricket & Sports, Bollywood The Stern-Gerlach Experiment Click here to go to the UPSCALE home page.Click here to go to the Physics Virtual Bookshelf. Introduction This page summarises summarises the classic Stern-Gerlach experiment on "spin" and extends the treatment to a discussion of correlation experiments. As is often the case, I build up maximum complexity as I examine the experimental details, and then hide them in a 'box'. Here we concentrate on electrons, which have only two spin-states. Classical Charged Spinning Objects All of the above is just classical 19th century electricity and magnetism. The Spin of the Electron This is very mysterious. You should beware of the term "spin." Building a Spin Filter Using the Spin Filter Note that one-half of the incident beam of electrons on the filter emerge from the box, while the other half do not. Evidently the direction of "up" is defined by the orientation of the filter doing the measurement. Technical note: if the relative angle is A, the percentage is 100 cos2(A/2). Correlation Measurements
Gamma spectroscopy The gamma-ray spectrum of natural uranium, showing about a dozen discrete lines superimposed on a smooth continuum, allows the identification the nuclides226Ra, 214Pb, and 214Bi of the uranium decay chain. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is the quantitative study of the energy spectra of gamma-ray sources, in the nuclear laboratory and nuclear process, and in geochemical, astrophysical and other radiation measurement contexts. Most radioactive sources produce gamma rays of various energies and intensities. A detailed analysis of this spectrum is typically used to determine the identity and quantity of gamma emitters present in the source. Gamma ray characteristics[edit] Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of electromagnetic radiation, being physically exactly like all other forms (e.g., X rays, visible light, infrared, radio) except for higher photon energy and frequency, and shorter wavelength. System components and principle of operation[edit] Detector performance[edit] See also[edit]