Right-hand rule

Also called RHR

A set of hand conventions for finding the direction of a magnetic quantity that is perpendicular to two others. Always the right hand, always conventional current, and the result reverses for a negative charge.

Three AP uses, one hand. Each names which finger carries which quantity.

Force on a moving charge. Point your fingers along the velocity, curl them toward the field, and your thumb gives the force on a positive charge. Equivalent form: index finger along v\vec{v}, middle finger along B\vec{B}, thumb along F\vec{F}.

Field around a straight wire. Thumb along the conventional current, and your curled fingers follow the way the field circles the wire. Current to the right across a page puts the field into the page above the wire and out of it below.

Field of a loop, and the induced current. Curl your fingers the way the current runs round the loop and your thumb gives the field along the axis at its centre. Run it backwards for Lenz's law: point the thumb along the field the loop must produce, and the fingers show which way the induced current flows.

Underneath all three is the cross product A×B\vec{A} \times \vec{B}, perpendicular to both, with its sense set by the same hand.

Two things break the answer. A negative charge reverses the force, so run the rule as stated, then flip it as a written step rather than switching hands. And the current is always conventional current, the way positive charge would move; using electron flow inverts every field on the page.

Naming the rule earns nothing on a free-response question. The AP Physics 2 CED says outright that "the force on a charged particle is to the right because of the 'right-hand rule'" is not complete enough to earn points. Write the two input directions and the sign of the charge.

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