<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>My inquiry refers to a popular rule known as "the right hand rule" that it is used to determine the direction of the force a magnetic field applies to a particle..
I've been practicing with the Princeton Review book but on questions 2 (pp. 215) 5 (pp. 219) and 8 (pp. 225) it doesn't seem to apply. Can someone corroborate this or explain why it does apply? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>You might be getting confused with what direction the right hand rule gives.</p>
<p>Take your right hand, and point out your index finger and middle finger such that your middle finger is essentially a small counter-clockwise rotation away from the middle finger. If you point your thumb upward, then the cross product of your index finger with your middle finger will have the direction of your thumb. Of course, note that the cross product is anti-commutative.</p>
<p>Right-hand rule is used not only in finding the direction of a force of a magnetic field, but determining the direction of the cross product of two vectors in general (e.g. torque).</p>
<p>Thanks rspence for your response.
I have now grasped the concept, moving on to optics!</p>
<p>Hey simplified concept… Point ur thumb middle finger n index mutually perpendicular like a gun wid d middle fing pointing to the side now align d fingers in such a way dat index points to magnetuc field n middle to current… D thumb will give force…n don sweat sat phy i got 800 in first attempt :)</p>