22 May
2011
22 May
'11
7:57 a.m.
Has anyone built a macroscopic object that has spinorial behavior but is not tethered to a frame by strings or ropes? (For an example of what I don't mean, see Ethan Bolker's article "The Spinor Spanner".) I envision an egg that emits a hum when it's resting on its base and is in the correct spinorientation. Rotate it 360 degree about any axis: no hum. Rotate it again about any axis: it hums. It's okay with me if the egg's mechanism "tethers" it via electromagnetic waves to an external device that tracks it in 3D and tells it when to hum. It's also okay with me if the egg isn't an egg but a sphere or cube (or a doll resembling P. A. M. Dirac). Jim Propp