Thumbs-up Memes

The right-hand rule strikes again! Physics students everywhere know the struggle of trying to figure out electromagnetic relationships using their hands. Professor Ampère's solution? Just give a thumbs up and call it a day! For the uninitiated, the right-hand rule is that awkward hand contortion physicists use to determine the direction of magnetic fields around current-carrying wires. Your thumb points in the current direction, and your curled fingers show the magnetic field lines. Elegant in theory, but in practice? Just another reason physicists look ridiculous in public. Every physics student has done the mental gymnastics of "wait, which finger goes where again?" only to get it wrong on the exam anyway. Thirty years teaching this stuff and I still occasionally do it backward.

The right-hand rule strikes again! This stick figure just wanted help with vector math and got the most literal demonstration possible. For those who missed linear algebra class: to find the direction of a cross product, you position your right hand with fingers pointing in the first vector's direction, curl them toward the second vector, and your thumb points in the cross product's direction. The silent thumbs-up response is pure mathematical genius - no equations needed, just basic anatomy. Physics students everywhere are having flashbacks to their professors dramatically waving hands around lecture halls.