The vector product of two vectors is written asand is another vectorwhere The magnitude of is defined by = c = ab sin f ...... (i)
Where, f is the angle between a and b, the direction of , the vector product of is defined to be perpendicular to the plane containing . To understand the direction of the vector , let us refer to the figure. Imagine rotating a right handed screw whose axis is perpendicular to the plane formed by a and b so as to twist it from a to b through the angle p between them. Then the direction of advance of the screw gives the direction of the vector product . Another way of determining the direction of the vector product is the right hand rule. If the right hand is held so that the curled fingers follow the rotation of, the extended right thumb will point in the direction of .
orders of factors in a vector product is important. This is not true for scalars because, the order of factors in algebra or arithmetic does not
Extending this to unit vectors,
