Measurement of Quantum-mechanical Spin-1/2 Systems
Part of the Collection of OSP-based Programs and Curricular Materials for Advanced Physics

OSP curricular material is organized using the OSP Launcher program written by Doug Brown.  Launcher allows us to distribute programs, documentation, and curricular material in a single easily modifiable package.  The OSP Spins Launcher package can be accessed by double clicking on the osp_spins.jar file.  Click on the Exercises button near the bottom of the splash screen in order to load curricular materials for spin-1/2 systems into Launcher.

 

This material is organized using tabs which appear at the bottom of the program depending on which module is selected:
 

Spin-1/2: Tutorial: An interactive self-contained tutorial on spin-1/2 systems. This tutorial contains the necessary theory required to understand and complete the exercises.

Spin-1/2: Single Measurement: Single measurement exercises in which a beam of spin-1/2 particles is incident on one ideal Stern-Gerlach apparatus. These exercises show how a single measurement of spin affects the original spin state. These exercises include those that require students to determine either the original spin state or the orientation of an unknown analyzer.

Spin-1/2: Multiple Measurement: Multiple measurement exercises. These exercises show how multiple measurements of spin affect the original spin state. These exercises include those with two and three ideal  Stern-Gerlach apparatus and a ‘which-way?’ experiment in which the outcome of the experiment is changed by watching the ideal Stern-Gerlach apparatus.

Spin-1/2: Spin Precession: Spin precession exercises in which a beam of spin-1/2 particles passes through a magnetic field for a given time, causing the beam to ‘precess.’ These exercises show how an additional magnetic field affects the original spin state.

About: Gives an overview of the curricular materials, describes the OSP Spins and Launcher programs, and gives author credits and version information.
 

All programs are feely distributable under the GNU GPL license.

Additional information about the OSP project can be obtained from  
http://www.opensourcephysics.org/


Partial funding for this work was obtained through
 an Associated Colleges of the South Teaching with Technology Fellowship
NSF grants DUE-0126439 and DUE-0442581

 

© Mario Belloni and Wolfgang Christian (2006).