The answer too makes explicit reference to the right hand rule to define clockwise. One answer to Applying the right-hand rule for magnetic forces explicitly uses the right hand rule, and explains that it is useful because the direction is " counter-clockwise or clockwise depending on what side of the plane you are looking at ".
This is essentially a meaningless question unless you specify a system with respect to which you define both clockwise and anti-clockwise. If you don't do this, then there really is no way to answer: when seen from above the North pole, the Earth rotates in a counter-clockwise direction, whereas when seen from above the South pole, it rotates ...
But there is a clear reason why it is clockwise: Earth's spin cuases an apparent motion of the sun during the day, which causes shadows to turn around objects. This was used to construct sundials to measure the time, and so the shadow's motion defined what we call clockwise, as the direction was transferred to later mechanical clocks.
Calling one clockwise and the other anticlockwise doesn't quite get the difference across. But the angular momentum is genuine. Check out the Einstein-de Haas effect, which demonstrates that spin angular momentum is indeed of the same nature as the angular momentum of rotating bodies as conceived in classical mechanics.
My physics book states that by convention a clockwise moment is said to be negative and an anti-clockwise moment is said to be positive. I'm curious about the origin of this convention.
The Arm PQ is moved to the left side thus decreasing the area of the rectangular loop. This results in a decrease in magnetic flux in the Downward (inside the page) direction. Hence, according to lenz's law, the induced current should be in Clockwise direction but the book says the opposite. Am I missing something? or is the book wrong?
1 I was watching a YouTube video on the difference of winding a coil clockwise vs winding a coil counter clockwise. It said the poles would be opposite using the same battery configuration. I've been thinking about this and it seems to me the poles would be the same regardless of the direction of the wind.
Hence for north pole approaching or a south pole moving away, the current runs counter-clockwise. When the north pole is moving further away or the south pole is moving closer, the opposite is true: the change in flux is negative, thus the line integral of the electric field is positive.
As with most quantities involved with rotation, the vector representing moment (or torque) is defined as being along the axis of rotation. (The axis is usually the one direction associated with a rotating object which does not change with time.) Th choice of a right-hand-rule is an arbitrary (but customary) choice. It is easy to remember. Curl your right hand fingers around the axis in the ...
Why and how does the 'clock rule' of electromagnetism (i.e. current flows clockwise as seen from the south pole of an electromagnet) work? [duplicate] Ask Question Asked 9 years, 10 months ago Modified 9 years, 3 months ago
