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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field



At 02:36 PM 5/10/99 -0600, Larry Smith wrote:
I don't care which way we decide to do
it, as long as we can all agree together. What is the vote on this list
for the convention?

There's not much to vote on. The conventions have been standard worldwide
and unchanged for at least 400 years
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/gilbert.html
and probably much longer.

1) Compasses are marked so that their "N" poles point toward Canada.

2) Other bar magnets are marked the same way as compass needles.

3) Other magnets are marked the same way as bar magnets.

--------

Now for some pedagogic tools:

a) The following statement seems to work:
The earth and its magnetic field can be modelled by taking a sphere and
skewering it with a bar magnet. The "S" pole of the bar magnet is in
northern Canada and the "N" pole is in Antarctica.

b) I recommend avoiding the term "geomagnetic north pole" because it is a
notorious source of confusion. Note that the recommended statement uses
Canada as a circumlocution for geographic north, and uses "N" and "S" (not
"North" and "South") to denote the markings on a bar magnet.

Cheers --- jsd