Before this lesson, students should:

• Understand the Stern-Gerlach experiment setup and know the results of the experiment.
• Know that the spin-up and spin-down results of the Stern-Gerlach experiment with z-orientation are written in bra-ket notation as $\vert\: +\rangle $ and $\vert\: - \rangle$, respectively.
• Have previous experience with polar coordinates.
• Have previous exposure to Euler's identity and complex numbers in general.
• Have the ability to use vectors and see how vectors and bra-ket notation are connected.