North Magnetic Pole - Introduction

Introduction

See also: Magnet#Pole naming conventions

The North Magnetic Pole is the point where the Earth's magnetic field points downward; in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed to rotate about a horizontal axis, it will point straight down when it is over the North Magnetic Pole. There is only one location where this occurs, near (but distinct from) the Geographic North Pole and the Geomagnetic North Pole.

All magnets have two poles that are distinguished by the direction of the magnetic flux. These poles could have any names, for example, "+" and "−"; but the convention in early compasses was to call the end of the needle pointing to the Earth's North Magnetic Pole the "north pole" (or "north-seeking pole") and the other end the "south pole" (the names are often abbreviated to "N" and "S"). Because opposite poles attract, this definition implies that the Earth's North Magnetic Pole is a magnetic south pole and the Earth's South Magnetic Pole is a magnetic north pole.

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