The NMR instrument makes use of the fact that hydrogen nuclei have a magnetic moment, which behaves like tiny compass needles and at the same time rotate like a spinning top. The hydrogen nuclei are thus said to have a nuclear spin.
In a magnetic field these spins precess about the field direction and the precession frequency is proportional to the magnetic field strength. For the Bruker minispec mq10 this resonant frequency is 10MHz.
A short, intensive radio frequency pulse is then applied to align all the magnetic moments.
