why is the Right Hand Rule in electromagnetism true?

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Here is a description of the right hand rule – https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/physical-processes/magnetism-mcat/a/using-the-right-hand-rule

I understand THAT this is true, and have even directly seen experimental evidence that it is true, but what i cannot wrap my brain around is WHY this is true.

So please internet, why is the field always to the right?

In: Physics

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

it is true by definition. You can rewrite all books of physics using a left-hand rule, and everything will still hold true.

Most physicists know how to sort through all this. Vectors are unaffected by the handness choice. Pseudo-Vectors are affected, they change signs when you switch the handness.

This also means: Pseudovectors are never directly observed (e.g. an axis of rotation). All you can observe is a plane – and you need to apply some handiness rule to assign it to a direction.

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