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2

This is because there are just two possible values to the spin in any direction, $-\frac{\hbar}{2}$ and $\frac{\hbar}{2}$, the just differ in a sign, so when you square it you get a single value $\frac{\hbar^2}{4}$. Think about this, the only possible value when you measure the square of $S_z$ is $\frac{\hbar^2}{4}$ for any state, so  ...

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OP asks: Is there any physical meaning to this? Yes, the Pauli matrix $\sigma_j$ represents (up to a proportionality factor) the spin in the $j$th direction of a spin $\frac{1}{2}$ system. Such system has only two spin states: $\uparrow$ and $\downarrow$, with opposite eigenvalues. The square $\sigma_j^2$ can no longer see the sign, so it only has one ...

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EDIT 2:There is no general procedure. It is not easy to find out how many commuting observables there are. In classical mechanics some systems are integrable. Then they have as many constants of motion as the number of degrees of freedom. For a system of N particles in d spatial dimensions times the number of degrees of freedom is Nxd. One particle and a ...

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