Unveiling the Hidden Quantum Realm: The Overlooked Experiment
The Stern-Gerlach experiment, conducted in 1922, confirmed the existence of quantum phenomena and played a crucial role in the development of quantum theory. The experiment involved shooting silver atoms at a detector and observing the splitting of the silver deposit. While the scientists initially attributed the splitting to the orbit of the atom's outermost electron, it was later discovered that it was actually due to the quantization of the electron's internal angular momentum, known as spin. This unexpected result led to a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics and challenged previous interpretations of the experiment.