Right-hand Rule - Direction Associated With An Ordered Pair of Directions

Direction Associated With An Ordered Pair of Directions

One form of the right-hand rule is used in situations in which an ordered operation must be performed on two vectors a and b that has a result which is a vector c perpendicular to both a and b. The most common example is the vector cross product. The right-hand rule imposes the following procedure for choosing one of the two directions.

  • With the thumb, index, and middle fingers at right angles to each other (with the index finger pointed straight), the middle finger points in the direction of c when the thumb represents a and the index finger represents b.

Other (equivalent) finger assignments are possible. For example, the first (index) finger can represent a, the first vector in the product; the second (middle) finger, b, the second vector; and the thumb, c, the product.

Read more about this topic:  Right-hand Rule

Famous quotes containing the words direction, ordered, pair and/or directions:

    From the way the grass bends, one can know the direction of the wind.
    Chinese proverb.

    According to our social pyramid, all men who feel displaced racially, culturally, and/or because of economic hardships will turn on those whom they feel they can order and humiliate, usually women, children, and animals—just as they have been ordered and humiliated by those privileged few who are in power. However, this definition does not explain why there are privileged men who behave this way toward women.
    Ana Castillo (b. 1953)

    There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art.... Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.
    Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)

    Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth,
    And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
    With windlasses and with assays of bias,
    By indirections find directions out.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)