A Brief History of Time

by

Stephen Hawking

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.
Get the entire A Brief History of Time LitChart as a printable PDF.
A Brief History of Time PDF

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
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
Particles have a property called spin, which reveals what a particle looks like from different directions. A particle with spin 0... (full context)
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
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... (full context)
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
The Search for a Unifying Theory of the Universe Theme Icon
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Chapter 8
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
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... (full context)
Chapter 11
The Search for a Unifying Theory of the Universe Theme Icon
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...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... (full context)