The compass (how it works?)

Hello steemians
I decided to write on science today because I got caught up with a question from my junior brother asking

how does a compass works?

Yeap! Quite a funny question to bring up, and I decided to know why he asked then I found out he was holding an old compass which he got from my grand dads bag.
So he was so curious to know why the compass never fails to locate the north pole, and it took me up to 3hrs trying to explain how the compass works.

Firstly whats a compass?
a compass is a circle like device that is used to locate the north, east , west and south pole and its built with a magnet inside that helps it to locate the north pole.
Compass is mostly used in the aviation sector and ships to help them navigate to there destination.

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image source

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Now lets know how it actually works
A tiny magnets its what’s actually makes a compass works, so if you are lost in the woods or any part of the world, your best chance of finding your way might be a tiny magnet. 
A compass points north because all magnets have two poles, a north and a south pole (we were all thought about this in secondary school/high school)
The earth is a magnet that can interact with other magnets in this way, so the north end of a compass is attracted to align with the earth magnetic field, why? Because the earth’s magnetic North Pole attracts the north ends of other magnets.
The north magnetic pole moves over time due to magnetic changes in the earth’s core.
The early European navigators believed that compass needles were attracted to a “magnetic island” somewhere in the far north or to the pole star.
Infact the idea that the Earth itself acts as a giant magnet was first proposed in 1600 by an English physician William Gilbert. He was also the first to define the north magnetic pole as the point where the the Earth’s magnetic field points vertically downwards, and that’s the definition used nowadays.

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While a compass is a great tool for navigation, it’s so sad that it doesn’t always point exactly north, this is because the earth’s magnetic north pole moves gradually. Over the last century, it has shifted more than 620 miles according to research towards Siberia.

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So if you are lost in any part just get a small magnet and suspend on a cup of water to make things easy you might find your way home. 

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how to use a compass

Using a compass can be pretty hard but here is a quick note on what to do.

1. Align the edge of the compass with the starting and finishing point of your map

2. Rotate the compass until the north pole aligns with the north on your map

3. Follow the direction of the travel arrow on the compass, keeping the needle aligned with orienting arrow on the housing

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please sorry for not using enough images for my post, currently in a remote location, getting enough signal for download is hard :-(

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Reference 1-2-3

I am camzy the visual artist

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