I can still remember in 2nd grade science class wondering about this idea. And I still remember how baffled my teacher was when I asked her this question: “Doesn’t the north tip of a compass needle point to the south pole?” Think about this – if you hold up a magnet by a string, just like the needle of a compass, does the north end of the magnet line up with the north or south pole of the earth?


If you remember about magnets, you know that opposite attract. So the north tip of the compass will line up with the Earth’s SOUTH pole. So compasses are upside-down! Here’s an activity you can do right now…
Materials:


  • magnet
  • compass
  • string
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Comments

3 Responses to “Which way is North?”

  1. Jennifer Reynolds says:

    Wouldn’t they mark the north end south and the south end north on a compass?

  2. Wow – that’s fantastic! Great job to you both! 🙂

    The Earth isn’t a solid magnet, so breaking it in half isn’t quite as easy as doing it with the ceramic magnets. The magnetic field of the Earth still isn’t fully understood, but it comes from the sloshing of the molten iron core, and liquid magnets have different properties from solid magnets.

    And yes, you’ll want to figure out where the poles of the magnet are before you break it. They can be on either end, on the top and bottom surface, or similar. You can easily show your child this by coloring the north blue and the south red so he gets a picture of which pole is where. Does that help?

  3. Hello Aurora,

    I would like to express my gratitude to you for my 1st grade son won the 1st prize in science fair. He will go up to district level competition. He did his science experiment with magnet. He broke two magnets; a rectangular and a doughnut. Also, he questioned, “what if I break the earth in half? I don’t think we can ever go to the southern hemisphere.” During the experiment I had a question.I think to split the poles of rectangular or doughnut shape magnet, you should slice half way, not break the middle point, because poles are separated up and down, not left and right. He is only 7 years old, so going too far will overwhelm him. I wanted him to understand it in a every easy way.

    Thank you very much,

    Taeyoung