A merry-go-round analogy

[Johanna Waltenspiel]

We will start by putting the magnetometer in the middle of the merry-go-round to represent the nucleus.
The child will then swallow (or put in his pocket) the bar magnet and the electrically charged ball. The child is now the electron.
The bar magnet creates a field which the nucleus feels, this is the spin-dipolar contribution to the hyperfine field.
It then has to get on the merry-go-round and start turning it really quickly. The charged ball in it’s pocket is now creating a current loop which generates a magnetic field. This represents the orbital contribution.
In the end, to represent the Fermi contact contribution, the child must move towards the middle, where the magnetometer-nucleus is positioned. It then has to enter the magnetometer.

[r0708518]

“The child will then swallow (or put in his pocket) the bar magnet and the electrically charged ball. The child is now the electron.”

Sounds more like a horror story than physics.

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