Which direction will a magnet point to and why?

Answer 1

A magnet always has two faces or 'poles'. One is called north, because it will be attracted to the north pole of the earth if allowed to freely rotate. The other is called south because it will be attracted to the south pole of the earth. The earth itself acts like a magnet. The north pole of the earth actually has a south magnetic polarity and therefore attracts the north pole of a magnet. A compass needle is a magnet in which the arrow that points north has a north magnetic polarity.

Answer 2

A magnet will point towards the Earth's magnetic north pole because it aligns itself with the Earth's magnetic field. This behavior is due to the magnetic properties of the materials inside the magnet, which allows it to interact with the Earth's magnetic field.

Answer 3

A bar magnet, when freely suspended, will always come to rest pointing approximately in a North-South direction.

The reason for this is that it is aligning itself with the Earth's natural magnetic field which extends, as we shall learn, from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere.

However, the Earth's magnetic field isn't aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation -in other words, it doesn't extend between the geographic, or True North pole, and the geographic, or True South pole. Rather, it extends between two other locations which we call 'Magnetic North' and 'Magnetic South'. These locations move over time, and are several hundred miles from True North and True South.

It's important to understand that 'Magnetic North' and 'Magnetic South' are LOCATIONS named to distinguish them from True North and True South, and are NOT the magnetic polarities of those locations.

For obvious reasons, the end of the magnet which points to Magnetic North was originally called its 'north-seeking' pole, and the end which points to Magnetic South was originally called its 'south-seeking' pole. Over time, we no longer use the term, 'seeking', and simply call them the magnet's 'north' and 'south' poles.

So the poles of a magnet are named after the DIRECTIONS in which they point but, also, by general consent, are also used to identify their magnetic polarities.

Because 'unlike poles attract', this means that the MAGNETIC POLARITY of the location we call 'Magnetic North' must be a south pole, and the MAGNETIC POLARITY of the location we call 'Magnetic South' must be a north pole.

From this, we can conclude that the Earth behaves as though there was a giant bar magnet buried deep within the earth, slightly misaligned from the Earth's axis of rotation, and whose north pole is located in the southern hemisphere and whose south pole is located in the northern hemisphere, and a freely-suspended magnet aligns itself with that magnet's field. WebRep

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Answer 4

The north pole of a magnet points to the north because it is responding to the Earth's magnetic field. The magnet will not ALWAYS point north; if there is a stronger magnet nearby, it will be affected by that one instead.

Answer 5

I believe it has to do with the earths Magnetic field. The North(im guessing) Has a stronger pull than the rest of the earth. I'm sure if you need a 100% accurate Answer you could find an article on Google or something.

Answer 6

The needle is magnetic and therefore aligns with the magnetic poles of the earth. Unless you are standing at the poles, in which case the needle can point anywhere

Answer 7

A magnet will try to align itself with the ambient magnetic field. The north pole of the magnet will "point" to the south, and the south pole will "point" to the north.

Answer 8

a bar magnet will align itself in the direction of the magnetic field i.e along the magnetic field which means that both of the ends of the bar magnet will be in the line of magnetic field

Answer 9

It points to the magnetic north pole. The magnetic north pole is slowly moving. Its currently about 500 miles off the coast of Canada.

Answer 10

Well, they try.

As for why, they're trying to align with the Earth's magnetic field.