Coordinate systems

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Original post by clapton Hello! I've got two short questions. In a book I am reading the author gives a way to determine direction of a x b in left/right-handed coordinate systems. He says that we have to place the tail of b at the head of a and examine whether we make a clockwise or counterclockwise turn. Then, author marks that aligning vectors tail-to-tails won't give correct results. I can't see a difference between 'tait-to-tail' and 'tail-to-head' alignment when examining the rotation direction. Am I wrong ?

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The following question might sound silly but I couldn't find any straight answer. Does the handiness of the coordinate system determine the use of row or column vectors? Or is it something unrelated? Can I simply choose to use column rather than row vectors in a left-handed system?

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Original post by jyk4What book is it? If I have it I'll take a look.4

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Coordinate system handedness, row or column vectors, and matrix 'majorness' are not tied together in any way;

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Original post by clapton 3D Math Primier for Graphics and Game Development, Wordware 2002, Fletcher Dunn. Page 65. Just remember that I could have misunderstood something.

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Original post by jyk You can figure out the direction of the cross product whether the vectors are head-to-tail or tail-to-tail; you just have to think about it a little differently.

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Original post by clapton The thing is that in my opinion there is no difference between aligning vectors head-to-tail and tail-to-tail when determining the direction of the resulting vector. In h-to-t case you 'extend' the a vector which is equal to simply aligning both vectors tail-to-tail. What do you think ?