electric-circuitselectromagnetic-inductionelectromagnetism
I'm trying to determine what the correct right hand rule is, but Google isn't helping. I've seen three different versions of Fleming's Right Hand Rule now, and I'm very confused.
Here are three different versions I've been seeing:
Would someone be able to explain which is correct and why the wrong ones exist?
Note that a current carrying wire produces a circular magnetic field that's why it doesn't matter how you hold your hand ie how you rotate your hand around your arm as long as your thumb shows the direction of the current.
Edit after comments:
See the illustration I've added below. Now use your hand in the way that you've learned and convince yourself that what I've drawn below is correct.
Best Answer
You want the relationship $\vec F=\vec I \times \vec B$ to hold in all cases (direction wise at least. If you were looking at calculating actual numbers you would need to multiply the cross product by a length). You will see that in the first two this is obviously true. In the last one the wording is confusing. It is correct if you take "motion" to be the initial velocity of a positive charge and "current" to be the force, but I'm not sure this word substitution is justified.
Therefore I would not look at the final picture. The first two are valid though.
I prefer the first one based on a fun memory device. Your fingers are like grass in a "field", when you push on something with a force you use your palm, and the velocity or current is the other one (props to someone who can make a good analogy for the thumb being the velocity or current. The best I can think of is hitch hiking?).