How does a magnetic compass work? Well, it’s all down to basic physics and human ingenuity. The key component of a standard baseplate compass is its magnetized needle, which is allowed to spin freely ...

Cutting a bar magnet in half won't get rid of its poles. It'll just produce two magnets, each with a north pole that will be attracted to the other magnet's south pole, and vice versa. It's this ...

Earth’s magnetic field has been acting restless, with the north magnetic pole racing across the Arctic and the field itself weakening in some regions. Those shifts have fueled viral claims that a ...

Earth is the only rocky body in the inner solar system with strong magnetic poles. But where do these poles come from, and what do they do? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

The midnight sun shines across sea ice along the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in 2017. (Credit: David Goldman/AP) A lesser known feature of the planet Earth’s magnetic field ...

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The poles of the sun’s magnetic field are fading away. But don’t panic: it’s all part of our host star’s usual 11-year cycle of activity. Over the past couple of years, solar activity—as measured by ...

In mid-November 2024, several news outlets published articles claiming the magnetic North Pole was "moving toward Russia." Several Snopes readers wrote to ask us whether the reporting was true and ...

The updated version of the World Magnetic Model was released on Dec. 17, with a new prediction of how the magnetic north pole will shift over the next five years. Here's why it was changed. When you ...

Scientists explain why there’s no merit to recent claims blaming Earth’s magnetic poles for global warming—and what those geomagnetic shifts really mean. A visualization of the magnetic lines of force ...