Skip to main content

Reset your password

Please enter the e-mail address you used to register to reset your password

Note: The verification e-mail to change your password should arrive immediately. However, in some cases it takes longer. Don't forget to check your spam folder.

If you haven't received the e-mail in 24 hours, please contact customerservices@ioppublishing.org

Registration complete

Thank you for registering with Physics World
If you'd like to change your details at any time, please visit My account

Close
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics

How the Stern–Gerlach experiment made physicists believe in quantum mechanics

01 Nov 2022 Hamish Johnston

A century ago, the German physicists Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach carried out an experiment that gave an important credibility boost to the new-fangled notion of quantum mechanics. But as Hamish Johnston discovers, their now-famous experiment succeeded even if the physics on which it was based wasn’t quite right

Quantum concept illustration
Quantum test Beams of silver atoms proved crucial to the Stern–Gerlach experiment. (Courtesy: istock/Denis Pobytov)
Despite its counter-intuitive weirdness, quantum mechanics ranks as one of the most successful scien

You’ve reached the limit of what you can view on Physics World without registering

If you already have an account on Physics World, then please sign in to continue reading

If you do not yet have an account, please register so you can

  • Access more than 20 years of online content
  • Choose which e-mail newsletters you would like to receive
Hamish Johnston is an online editor of Physics World
Read previous

The joy of connecting quantum black dots
Read next

Climate tipping points: retreating from the brink and accelerating positive change

Discover more from Physics World

Related jobs

Related events

Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors