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3daxes

Why are the left and right handed coordinate systems so confusing on the web?


I am not very good with my left and right sometimes, so I end up looking up right and left hand coord sys stuff on the web when trying to do some computer graphics related coding. Anyway my issue has nothing todo with the coding but with the information on the web about the right definition of these stuff.

Everytime I look up I end up getting more confuused

Here is a list of page where everything is different from each other about the coords and hand stuff

http://www.cncexpo.com/Cartesian.aspx

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Left-HandedCoordinateSystem.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-hand_rule

http://www.evl.uic.edu/ralph/508S98/coordinates.html

None of these axis images are aligned in a consistent way which makes it hard to align mentally.

Can someone please point out a page or a reference that ultimately puts the final nail on this issue so that I can consistently rely on it from now on

I generally think that right handed means z+ towards me, left handed means z+ away from me.

thanks


Solution

  • Wikipedia's right-handed rule page is correct: right handed means z+ toward you.