There’s an interesting analog in magnetism. Certain materials, for example, are ferromagnetic, a state in which the magnetic moments of the material’s atoms (or ions) are all aligned, generating a net magnetism. A ferromagnet is analogous to a solid with a definite crystalline structure. However, if the magnetic moments of the atoms, or ions, are randomly oriented, the material has no permanent magnetism—analogous to the structure of glass. Each individual magnetic moment is the outcome of the spin of an elementary particle in the material. Hence, materials with disordered magnetic moments are
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