The Right Hand Rules

Students in Maths 1M are learning the cross product at the moment. This is a way to multiply two vectors in 3D space – let's call them v₁ and v₂ – to produce a new vector, which is called v₁ × v₂. The length of this new vector is related to the lengths of the two original vectors and the angle between them, and the direction is perpendicular to both of the original vectors. However there are two possible directions it could point and still be perpendicular to both. We need a consistent way to choose which of the two options to use, and this is provided by the so-called "right-hand rule".

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