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aap_today at 8:29 AM1 replyview on HN

Very cool! The suggestion to consider how the standard model came to be rather than starting with the result sounds like an excellent idea.

But of course i have to disagree with this: "A spin-1/2 particle is described by a spinor, which is a bit weird, but spin-1 particle is described by something more familiar: a vector!"

In my view a spinor is even more familiar than a vector: it's like a hand - it comes back to itself after 720° of rotation. Just like a vector is like an arrow or a mirror, which come back after 360°. What could be more familiar than a hand?


Replies

dist-epochtoday at 8:47 AM

"a spinor is like a hand" is about as intuitive as "a monad is like a burrito"

Spinors are so intuitive that you need a 1 hour video full of animations to explain them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7OIbMCIfs4