Earth has a magnetic field generated by the movement of molten iron in its outer core. A compass works by aligning itself with this magnetic field, with its needle pointing towards the Earth's magnetic North Pole. This allows navigators to determine their direction relative to the magnetic poles.
Earth acts like a giant bar magnet with a North and South pole, which creates a magnetic field. A compass needle is a small magnet that aligns itself with Earth's magnetic field to point towards the magnetic North pole. This allows users to determine their direction by reading the compass needle.
The simple answer is that the magnetized needle is being attracted by the North Magnetic Pole (which is close to, but not the same as the geographic North Pole).However, the colored part of the needle is not actually drawn to the North, although that would be the result of unlike charges being drawn together. The actual effect is that the needle aligns itself with the parallel lines of magnetism connecting the North and South magnetic poles, so that it lines up North and South, its northern end pointed north and its southern end pointed south.The Earth's magnetic field is generated by the movement of its iron core in relation to the crust.No matter where you stand on Earth, you can hold a compass in your hand and it will point toward the North Pole. What an unbelievably neat and amazing thing! Imagine that you are in the middle of the ocean, and you are looking all around you in every direction and all you can see is water, and it is overcast so you cannot see the sun... How in the world would you know which way to go unless you had a compass to tell you which way is "up"? Long before GPS satellites and other high-tech navigational aids, the compass gave humans an easy and inexpensive way to orient themselves.But what makes a compass work the way it does? And why is it useful for detecting small magnetic fields, as we saw in How Electromagnets Work? In this article, we will answer all of these questions, and we'll also see how to create a compass from scratch!A compass is an extremely simple device. A magnetic compass (as opposed to a gyroscopic compass) consists of a small, lightweight magnet balanced on a nearly frictionless pivot point. The magnet is generally called a needle. One end of the needle is often marked "N," for north, or colored in some way to indicate that it points toward north. On the surface, that's all there is to a compass.The reason why a compass works is more interesting. It turns out that you can think of the Earth as having a gigantic bar magnet buried inside. In order for the north end of the compass to point toward the North Pole, you have to assume that the buried bar magnet has its south end at the North Pole, as shown in the diagram at the right. If you think of the world this way, then you can see that the normal "opposites attract" rule of magnets would cause the north end of the compass needle to point toward the south end of the buried bar magnet. So the compass points toward the North Pole.To be completely accurate, the bar magnet does not run exactly along the Earth's rotational axis. It is skewed slightly off center. This skew is called the declination, and most good maps indicate what the declination is in different areas (since it changes a little depending on where you are on the planet).The magnetic field of the Earth is fairly weak on the surface. After all, the planet Earth is almost 8,000 miles in diameter, so the magnetic field has to travel a long way to affect your compass. That is why a compass needs to have a lightweight magnet and a frictionless bearing. Otherwise, there just isn't enough strength in the Earth's magnetic field to turn the needle.The "big bar magnet buried in the core" analogy works to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field, but obviously that is not what is really happening. So what is really happening?No one knows for sure, but there is a working theory currently making the rounds. As seen on the above, the Earth's core is thought to consist largely of molten iron (red). But at the very core, the pressure is so great that this superhot iron crystallizes into a solid. Convection caused by heat radiating from the core, along with the rotation of the Earth, causes the liquid iron to move in a rotational pattern. It is believed that these rotational forces in the liquid iron layer lead to weak magnetic forces around the axis of spin.It turns out that because the Earth's magnetic field is so weak, a compass is nothing but a detector for very slight magnetic fields created by anything. That is why we can use a compass to detect the small magnetic field produced by a wire carrying a currentThe Core of our earth is molten iron, and it's spinning really friggen fast. That spin of the iron creates a large electro-magnetic field. Similar to a small bar magnet, it has two poles. The needle in the compas will be attracted to the pull of the northpoleansw2. your compass needle just aligns itself with the lines of magnetic force in your vicinity. Which in turn are influenced by the position of the poles.because of the poles magnetic fieldA compass needle aligns itself to the earth's magnetic field. The direction of the earth's magnetic extends from the earth's Magnetic South to its Magnetic North. Remember, the terms 'Magnetic North' and 'Magnetic South' refer to LOCATIONS in the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively, and not to the magnetic polarities at these locations. Because 'unlike poles attract', this means that the polarity of Magnetic North is a south pole, thus attracting the north (coloured) pole of a compass needle.The iron core of the Earth acts like a giant bar magnet buried in the Earth.Since that giant bar magnet is pointing South, opposites attract and the magnetized needle points North.
A magnet has both a South pole and a North pole. The magnetic properties of a magnet come from the alignment of electrons inside of the magnet. The North pole of a magnet will repel another North pole, but attract a South pole, and vice versa.
Hans Christian Oersted discovered in 1820 that an electric current produces a magnetic field. This discovery laid the foundation for the development of electromagnetism and the relationship between electricity and magnetism.
iron bearing minerals can record Earth's magnetic field direction. when Earth's magnetic field reverses, newly formed iron bearing minerals will record the magnetic reversal. magnetic reversals show new rock being formed at mid-ocean ridges. This helped explain how the crust could move
The magnet in the compass is attracted to the magnetic field in the Earth's core. The N on the compass always point to magnetic north.... Don't get that confused with geographical north. They are different. Hope this helps.
Earth acts like a giant bar magnet with a North and South pole, which creates a magnetic field. A compass needle is a small magnet that aligns itself with Earth's magnetic field to point towards the magnetic North pole. This allows users to determine their direction by reading the compass needle.
A compass is a navigational tool that uses the Earth's magnetic field to determine direction. The needle inside the compass is magnetized and aligns itself with the Earth's magnetic field. By pointing the compass needle towards north, a person can determine the cardinal directions (north, south, east, west).
The deflection of the magnetic needle in the compass is due to the flow of electric current when the free ends of the tester, such as a galvanometer, are dipped into the solution. The electric current creates a magnetic field around the tester, which interacts with the Earth's magnetic field, causing the needle in the compass to show deflection.
the magnetic compass and the astrolabe because it lead them to were they wanted to go
If the needle of the compass points directly to your left, it means you are facing north. The needle of a compass always aligns with the Earth's magnetic field, with the red end pointing towards the magnetic north pole and the white (or non-red) end pointing towards the magnetic south pole.
When you close the circuit, the flow of current generates a magnetic field around the wire, which can influence the direction of the compass needle. The compass needle will align itself with the magnetic field produced by the current flowing through the circuit, causing it to deflect from its original position.
The introductory figure summarizes our model for a photoreceptor-based magnetic compass in birds. The geomagnetic field can affect radical-pair reaction yields as governed by the stochastic Liouville equation depicted in the thinking bubble of the bird. These effects result in a modulation of visual information as shown in the right figure. The changes of visual modulation patterns with different orientations of the bird can explain the magnetic compass orientation observed in behavioral experiments.
The Chinese invention of rice paper truly influenced the world. Like Greek parchment, Chinese paper made writing especially easier. The magnetic compass also allowed the world to understand time and direction. Gunpowder, of course, helped the world militarily and for hunting purposes.
Any time current flows through a conductor an electromagnetic field is formed around the length of that conductor. The direction of current flow determines the polarity of this magnetic field.
Well... you could visually demonstrate a magnetic field. Kids like visual learning tools. You can get a big magnet and put a piece of paper over it. Then take some type of metal filings and sprinkle them over the paper. The metal filings will align themselves in the direction of the magnetic field. You can explain to them about north and south poles. How the magnetic field is attracted to the south pole. Also take a compass and bring it close to the paper and you will see the compass moving in the direction that your sprinkled metal filings have fallen.
When a permanent magnet is heated, the temperature disrupts the alignment of the magnetic domains within the material. This causes the magnetic field to weaken or even disappear altogether. The heat can increase the thermal energy in the material, leading to randomization of the domain orientations and loss of the magnetic properties.