Visualizing Angular Velocity Vector

[justadream]

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Wikipremed presents a method to visualize the angular velocity vector: Curl your right hand fingers in the direction of the rotation and the vector will be in the direction of your thumb.

http://www.wikipremed.com/01physicscards.php?card=237

Why is the angular velocity vector coming out of the plane of the rotation (I may be completely misunderstanding this)?

 

[gettheleadout]

Wikipremed presents a method to visualize the angular velocity vector: Curl your right hand fingers in the direction of the rotation and the vector will be in the direction of your thumb.

http://www.wikipremed.com/01physicscards.php?card=237

Why is the angular velocity vector coming out of the plane of the rotation (I may be completely misunderstanding this)?

You're understanding it correctly, it's just really weird. Angular velocity is a pseudovector, and the weird directionality is a result of the math (in particular the cross product) that describes it. Try not to let that bother you so much, just be able to apply the right-hand rule and understand what the angular velocity vector says about the rotation of a body.

 

[Cawolf]

Yup - it's just a convention used to describe the direction of momentum/velocity. It is for simplicity since most people have a right hand.