Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field generated by electric currents from within the planet. Compasses take advantage of this field to identify north and serve as a navigational aid. But one social ...

Some inventions are so simple that it’s hard to improve them. The magnetic compass is a great example — a magnetized needle, a bit of cork, and a bowl of water are all you need to start navigating the ...

The magnetized needle of a conventional compass wants to align with Earth’s magnetic field—helpful, unless you’re near the poles, where the field tugs straight downward, rendering magnetic compasses ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

Using a magnetic compass to calculate the current in a wire. Learn how magnetic fields, compass deflection, and basic electromagnetism principles connect in a practical physics experiment. #MagneticFi ...

A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetism: the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a given location.

Compass readings that do not show the direction of true north and interference with the operations of satellites are a few of the problems caused by peculiarities of the Earth's magnetic field. The ...

In the blink of an eye in geological time, Canada has lost one north pole but gained another, a new and different claim to be the true north ...

Measurements by the SWAN instrument onboard SOHO, have shown that the heliosphere, the solar wind filled volume which prevents the solar system from getting embedded in the local (ambient) ...

At some point during our primary school careers, most of us probably constructed a simple compass, often by floating a ...