Left-Handed Coordinate System: Unit Vectors i,j,k

[qwerty11]

A friend asked me this question today. It kinda threw me for a loop. The cartesian coordinates system is a left handed coordinate system right, so therefroe they are defined by a left handed coordinate syste correct?

 

[Mark44]

The Cartesian coordinate system is a right-handed system.

 

[HallsofIvy]

Your friend is playing with your mind!

 

[Rasalhague]

Does your "friend" live in that square of glass in your bathroom and have an uncanny knack for mimickry?

 

[D H]

The Cartesian coordinate system is a right-handed system.

Not necessarily. That is an extremely common, but not universal, convention.

Your friend is playing with your mind!

Or he/she is a geologist, or a radar technician, or a GPS specialist, or someone else who (danged annoyingly!) works with north-east-up coordinates.