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Hans:
Thank you for the support. I have thought for a long time that I was the
only one claiming the "north" and "south" wells on the re-magnetizer were
labeled wrong.
It is very easy to check. Just put a current through a wire close to a
compass and one can see clearly that the "N" marked compass pole is
indeed its north pole.
the "north-seeking" verbiage does nothing more than confuse the issue.
North is north, and south is sourth, and the magnetic south pole of the
earth is in the northern hemisphere.
Oren Quist, SDSU
----------
From: Hans G. Ammitzboll
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 9:36 AM
To: QuistO; RAUBERJ; phys-l
Subject: Re: south in the north
SoThe north pole of a compass needle DOES point south. It's the
"north-SEEKING" pole that points to the Earth's magnetic north.
the
southend of the compass needle marked N (for north) is actually the
I guess the point here is that Ms. Marilyn has gotten one wrong YETpole of the compass needle. This is supposed to avoid confusion!
AGAIN!
The
end of the compass needle marked N (for north) is in fact, just what it
claims
to be; the north pole of a small magnet. It points to the Earth's
magnetic
SOUTH. Which lies in the geographic region of northern Canada. The
correct
convention for naming poles is to call the end which would point in the
geographic north direction, the north pole. This means that the magnetic
polarity in that direction must be a south magnetic pole.
As an interesting aside, if you ever purchase a "re-magnetizer" for your
classroom magnets, you should know that the two wells into which you
place the
ends of the magnets are marked WRONG. If you hold the north pole of a
PROPER
magnet near a compass, you will attract the south end of the compass.
Since
this seems to confuse many people, the manufacturers of these
re-magnetizers
have switched the labels on their apparatus so that the end of a magnet
placed
into the well marked N, will come out attracting the North end of a
compass
needle. Vice-versa for the well marked S of course. Kind of odd
reasoning on
the part of the manufacturers. I guess they think something like 'since
more
than half the people get it wrong, we'll switch things around so that we
agree
with the majority.' Go figure!
--
Hans G. Ammitzboll physics@mindless.com
Drew University Physics Dept.
Madison NJ 07940
"Grow up, not old. Be childlike, not childish."
-Me
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From: "Hans G. Ammitzboll" <physics@mindless.com>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu
Subject: Re: south in the north
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