Proctoring a physics 1 exam and seeing students do both these and curling their fingers around (thumb in direction of current, curl fingers around direction of magnetic field) was always very humerous to see.
I was totally unable to understand that. As simple as it is. Got my physics minor basically getting every single rhr question wrong. Don’t know how I managed it
I hated the hand thing. Instead I remembered it working like the polarity of the “tan” function since that was easy for me to picture.
a = 1 finger
b = 1 finger
a x b = 1 x 1 = 1 thumb
checks out 🤓
Also applicable in a modified way in biology, useful for keying snails
That’s kind of rude, then they’ll have to get their house repainted
Tbh I never understood this rule very well and I did my undergrad in physics. My teacher or prof would teach this but I’d forget it almost instantly.
To visualize a cross product, I just remember that x cross y = z, then remember how the axes are oriented.
There’s also the left handed rule and the Unity handed rule
