Editing Spinor (section)

=== Attempts at intuitive understanding ===
The spinor can be described, in simple terms, as "vectors of a space the transformations of which are related in a particular way to rotations in physical space".<ref>Jean Hladik: ''Spinors in Physics'', translated by J. M. Cole, Springer 1999, {{isbn|978-0-387-98647-0}}, p. 3</ref> Stated differently:
{{blockquote|Spinors ... provide a linear representation of the group of [[Rotation (mathematics)|rotations]] in a space with any number <math>n</math> of dimensions, each spinor having <math>2^\nu</math> components where <math>n = 2\nu+1</math> or <math>2\nu</math>.<ref name="cartan-1966-quote" />}}

Several ways of illustrating everyday analogies have been formulated in terms of the [[plate trick]], [[tangloids]] and other examples of [[orientation entanglement]].

Nonetheless, the concept is generally considered notoriously difficult to understand, as illustrated by [[Michael Atiyah]]'s statement that is recounted by Dirac's biographer Graham Farmelo:
{{blockquote|No one fully understands spinors. Their algebra is formally understood but their general significance is mysterious. In some sense they describe the "square root" of geometry and, just as understanding the [[square root of −1]] took centuries, the same might be true of spinors.<ref>{{cite book |first=Graham |last=Farmelo |title=The Strangest Man: The hidden life of Paul Dirac, quantum genius |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-571-22286-5 |page=430}}</ref>}}