Physics Lournal

Powered by 🌱Roam Garden

This situation can be generalized: Pick any unit vector m^\hat{m}, and prepare a spin of +1, and rotate the apparatus to lie along n^\hat{n}, and measure the vector, and you will get a random series of results ±1\pm1 but with an average equal to the cosine of the angle between m^\hat{m} and n^\hat{n}.

The mathematical notation for the statistical average of some quantity is Dirac's bra-ket notation (⟨Q⟩\langle Q\rangle).

This allows us to summarize the results of the experiments as follows: if we begin with AA along some axis m^\hat{m} and prepare a spin of σ=+1\sigma = +1, then orient AA along n^\hat{n}, and take measurement, the statistical value is ⟨σ⟩=n^×m^\langle \sigma \rangle = \hat{n} \times \hat{m}.

Effectively, quantum systems behave non-deterministically, with statistically random results, but repetition of experiments, provides results that match classical physics, up to a point.