Atom center of mass, although strictly speaking these particles are believed to be point-like and cannot be said to be rotating. Spin is measured in units of the reduced Planck constant (ħ), with electrons, protons and neutrons all having spin ½ ħ, or "spin-½". In an atom, electrons in motion around the nucleus possess orbital angular momentum in addition to their spin, while the nucleus itself possesses angular momentum due to its nuclear spin. The magnetic field produced by an atom—its magnetic moment—is determined by these various forms of angular momentum, just as a rotating charged object classically produces a magnetic
Vector model of the atom The process of adding all angular momenta together is a laborious task, since the resultant momenta is not definite, the entire cones of precessing momenta about the z-axis must be incorporated into the calculation. This can be simplified by some developed approximations - such as the "Russell-Saunders coupling" scheme in L-S coupling, named after H. N. Russell and F. A. Saunders (1925). Vector model of the atom In physics, in particular quantum mechanics, the vector model of the atom is a model of the atom in terms of angular momentum. It can be considered as the extension of the Rutherford-Bohr-Sommerfeld