Right Hand Rules (Blog 7)

Today we learned about two important components of magnetism in class: right-hand rule #1 and right-hand rule #2.
Firstly, Oersted's Principle states that electric charge moving through a conductor creates a circular magnetic field around the object. Thus, right hand rules are used to determine the magnetic forces around an object.

Right-Hand Rule #1:
Grasp the object (conductor) and make sure your thumb is pointing in the direction of the current direction (conventional flow). Curve your fingers inwards and that will tell you the direction of the magnetic field.


Right-Hand Rule #2:
Grasp the object with curved fingers in the direction of the flow. The thumb represents the North direction.