Event Details

The result of the Stern-Gerlach experiment is interpreted as the fact that a spin can only point either "up" or "down" in a magnetic field. This view follows the doctrine that only stationary states represent physical reality. Focussing on the dynamically least probable situations it misses the dynamic wealth related to nonstationary states. The application of Schroedinger's time-dependent equation to closed systems reveals that so-called "general" expectation values always behave classically. In the special case presented here, the motion of the total magnetic moment of two spins ℏ/2 can even be described in space and time, and the anomalous Zeeman effect turns out to be just a magnetomechanical effect of balanced internal and external torques.