Unsure About the Right Hand Rule? Get Help Here!

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The discussion revolves around understanding the Right Hand Rule (RHR) for determining directions in a physics problem involving a moving charge in a magnetic field. Participants express difficulty in applying the RHR to find the correct direction, emphasizing the need for clarity in visualizing the hand positions. The conversation highlights the confusion regarding geographical directions and the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field, noting that the North pole of a compass points towards geographic North despite the magnetic field's dip. Ultimately, the importance of correctly interpreting the RHR in three-dimensional space is underscored, along with the need for precise definitions of directions. The thread concludes with a clarification of how the Earth's magnetic field direction relates to geographic coordinates.
  • #31
minimario said:
It's 75 degrees below horizontal, so why is it north instead of south?
It doesn't depend on the dip angle.
The direction of the magnetic field of a dipole is defined, by convention, to be out of its North pole into its South pole.
The North pole of a magnet is defined to be the end which is attracted to somewhere near Earth's geographic North.
But the North pole of one magnet is attracted to the South pole of another. It follows that regarding Earth as a magnet, its North pole is at its geographic South pole, and vice versa.
To put it another way, the North pole of a compass needle points in the local direction of the Earth's magnetic field, i.e., approximately geographic North.
(In the context of the question, the 75 degree dip means we're at a high northern latitude.)
 

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