What is a compass needle?
A hiker checks a compass on a mountain trail, miles from any magnet, any wire, any machine. The needle still swings to north. Something must be providing the field.
A compass needle turns because it is a small magnet sitting in a magnetic field. No handheld magnet is near the hiker. So the field must come from something bigger.
The Earth itself produces a magnetic field, and the field is around the whole planet. The hiker stands inside it.
Its shape is like a bar magnet's field: the same looping pattern you sketched in the Fields topic, drawn at planet scale.
Near a bar magnet, the needle followed the magnet's field. Far from every magnet, Earth's field is the one that remains, so the needle follows Earth's.
On a prairie, a compass points north — no magnet for miles. What turns the needle?
What shape is Earth's magnetic field?
A sailboat is far out at sea, with no magnet aboard near the compass. Why does the compass still work?
The Earth produces its own magnetic field, all around the planet.
The compass needle is a small magnet, so Earth's field turns it.
The needle settles along Earth's field line at the boat.
Earth's magnetic field turns the needle, so the compass works with no magnet near it.
A diagram of Earth's magnetic field is to be drawn. Which familiar pattern should it match?
Earth's magnetic field is shaped like a bar magnet's field.
You sketched a bar magnet's looping field pattern in the Fields topic.
The diagram should match a bar magnet's field pattern, drawn at planet scale.
Omar says a compass works at a desert camp, with no magnet for miles. Is Omar correct?
A compass needle in a city park, far from any magnet, settles pointing north. What turns it?
Which statement about Earth's magnetic field is correct?
Where on Earth does a compass needle respond to Earth's magnetic field?