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 ...

Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field generated by electric currents from within the planet. Compasses take advantage of this field to identify north and serve as a navigational aid. But one social ...

Some inventions are so simple that it’s hard to improve them. The magnetic compass is a great example — a magnetized needle, a bit of cork, and a bowl of water are all you need to start navigating the ...

The magnetized needle of a conventional compass wants to align with Earth’s magnetic field—helpful, unless you’re near the ...

A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetism: the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a ...

The magnetic compass is the last unknown sense in migrating animals. For some scientists, the monarch butterfly is leading ...

In the blink of an eye in geological time, Canada has lost one north pole but gained another, a new and different claim to be ...

When Santa is done delivering presents on Christmas Eve, he must get back home to the North Pole, even if it's snowing so hard that the reindeer can't see the way.

Every year, great white sharks travel over 12,000 miles from South Africa to Australia, charting a nearly perfect straight line across the ocean. And every year, they turn around and travel back.

Measurements by the SWAN instrument onboard SOHO, have shown that the heliosphere, the solar wind filled volume which prevents the solar system from getting embedded in the local (ambient) ...

Fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even a few mammals rely on magnetoreception for navigation. But the exact mechanism ...