How to determine which end of a magnet is North

(c) 2007 Blue Mountains Energy Research Centre, Sydney, Australia
www.bmerc.com.au

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• magnet
• north
• compass

[cooliopoolio123]

where did u get the one wit the N and S already on it, and is it strong?

[bmerc04]

@cooliopoolio123 From memory I purchased the magnets from Dick Smith or Jaycar (in Australia). In the UA that would be Radio Shack or Tandy. The N and S were not white when I purchased the magnets - I used whiteout fluid to paint the N and S to make them stand out more in the video.

[New777World]

thanks good demonstration! very simple and yet so useful!

[dereynosa]

Thank you very much, so simple so useful, very clear , thanks again

[Zundwig]

thank you for explaining this! i was getting frustrated with the needle on a leaf trick. it kept going the opeset way

[NanetteW]

A fun project for children is to lightly scratch one end of a crewel needle onto the surface of a magnet, then carefully lay that needle flat on a bottle cap or piece of cork or foam, free floating on a water surface. ^_^