Quantum Numbers and Spin
Well, three quantum numbers down, one to go. You haven't mentioned anything
about spin yet...
How perceptive of you. The fourth quantum number, s, does indeed pertain to an electron's spin.
I know that each electron has either "spin up" or "spin down"...
Yes, and, correspondingly, s only has two possible values. For good
reasons that I shall not explain here, s= +1/2 means "spin up" and
s= -1/2 means "spin down."
So that's it; those four quantum numbers completely describe an electron. I
see how this fits in with Bob's visual
picture of a "quantum state":
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
