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Earth’s Magnetism

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Earth: A gigantic magnet:

The scientist William Gilbert discovered that a freely suspended magnet always points in the north-south direction. He gave a scientific explanation for this behaviour.

  • The north pole of a suspended magnet points towards the geographic north pole of the Earth.
  • This suggests that the south pole of some large magnet is located near the geographic north pole of the Earth.
  • Similarly, the magnetic north pole of that magnet must be near the geographic south pole.

From this, Gilbert concluded that Earth itself acts like a giant magnet. However, the magnetic south pole of the Earth is near the geographic north pole, and the magnetic north pole is near the geographic south pole.

Earth’s magnetism

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