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Re: south in the north



I would say this is the second time
this topic is discussed in this list...and I thought this
was an already closed question. How naive I was.
Indeed, after reading and re-reading the contributions
of this second attempt, I am no longer sure if my
picture of magnet-earth pair is right.

The facts I was told long ago: Earth's north pole
turn out to be a south magnetic pole.
-North pole of a bar magnet points to earth's
north pole

That's how I fitted these things together:
-for the origin of earth's B field, I imagine, f.i.
a solenoide, located at the earth's center, the current
circulating from London to South Africa.
-The bar magnet has magnetic dipole pointing from its
white end (south) to its red end (north) (suppose no one
has inverted its magnetization, so that red is actually
its north)
-A magnetic moment will always aling (same direction
and orientation) with the B field wherein the former lies.
-The compass we have in our hands lies always outside the
solenoid wich models the Earth's B field.

Conclusion: the compass needle does what it has to do, namely
it points its north pole in direction London.

Please, entlight me, I need it.

Regards,
M.A.Santos,
msantos@etse.urv.es


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


The north pole of a compass needle DOES point south. It's the
"north-SEEKING" pole that points to the Earth's magnetic north.
So
the
end of the compass needle marked N (for north) is actually the
south
pole of the compass needle. This is supposed to avoid confusion!

I guess the point here is that Ms. Marilyn has gotten one wrong YET
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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Subject: Re: south in the north
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