Dreaded_Anomaly comments on Ask an experimental physicist - Less Wrong
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Electrons have both electric charge and spin (which is a form of angular momentum), and in combination, these two properties create an intrinsic magnetic moment. A magnetic field exerts torque on anything with a magnetic moment, which causes the electron to precess if it is subjected to such a field. Because spin is quantized and has only two possible values for electrons (+1/2 or -1/2), they will only precess in two discrete ways. This can be used to separate the electrons by their spin values. The first experiment to do this was the Stern-Gerlach experiment, a classic in the early development of QM, and often considered to be the discovery of spin.
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