Each particle (or anti-particle) is associated with a spin, which reflects the number of times one needs to turn the particle until it looks the same. For example, a single-headed arrow must complete one complete revolution to look the same, giving it spin 1. A double headed arrow needs to only turn halfway to look the same, giving it spin 2.
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Spin Term Timeline in A Brief History of Time
The timeline below shows where the term Spin appears in A Brief History of Time. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
Particles have a property called spin, which reveals what a particle looks like from different directions. A particle with spin 0...
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...consistent with both the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He showed mathematically how spin ½ works and predicted that electrons should have partners, antielectrons or positrons. This later lead...
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Forces acting between matter particles are carried by the force particles—that is, those particles of spin 0, 1, and 2. Matter particles emit the force-carrying particles, which then change the particle’s...
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...Big things, like the earth, can create a large overall gravitational force. A particle of spin 2 called the graviton carries this force. Because it has no mass, the graviton can...
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...three types of particle called massive vector bosons carried this weak nuclear force, and are spin-1 particles. These particles only seem different at low energies, and at high energies they all...
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...is the strong nuclear force. This holds the atom together. The gluon, a particle of spin 1, carries this strong nuclear force and interacts only with quarks and itself. This force...
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Chapter 8
Linde put forward the chaotic inflationary model in 1983, which said there would be spin-0 in certain regions that, “because of quantum fluctuations, would have large values in some regions...
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Chapter 11
...called supergravity. It combined the graviton, the gravity wave-carrying particle, with other particles with different spin. These were all considered different forms of one superparticle, which unified certain matter and force...
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