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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: How many spots are produced from Stern-Gerlach apparatus that rotates?
« on: Today at 10:43:09 »
Worth being a bit pedantic and pointing out that it's more complicated with electrons, or any charged particle, in a magnetic field, because their path will also be be deflected by the Lorentz force.
That said, if we start with an electrically neutral atom we know that application of a homogeneous field results in alignment, and a divergent field produces separation, so sequential application of N divergent fields, each slightly rotated with respect to its predecessor, would be expected to produce a circular distribution consisting of 2N opposing arcs.
That said, if we start with an electrically neutral atom we know that application of a homogeneous field results in alignment, and a divergent field produces separation, so sequential application of N divergent fields, each slightly rotated with respect to its predecessor, would be expected to produce a circular distribution consisting of 2N opposing arcs.