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Re: south in the north



Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 09:36:45 -0400
From: "Hans G. Ammitzboll" <physics@mindless.com>
Subject: Re: south in the north


... 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.

A better convention (more general) is to say that the end of a magnet from
which the field lines are emerging is N while the end toward which they are
converging is S. How can one tell? By watching the compass. The S to N
segment of the needle coincides with the direction of B.
Ludwik Kowalski