show that a freely suspended magnet will always align in a particular direction. pls give ans.
Answers
Why does a freely suspended magnet always point towards North?
Originally Answered: Why is the North Pole of a freely suspended magnet pointing to the geographical north?
It doesn't. It points to the magnetic north pole, which is near but not exactly at the geographical north pole.
Furthermore, there's a labeling error that has become conventional. When the compass was invented, the end of it that pointed north was called the north end of the needle, and it is said to point to the north magnetic pole. But this is actually wrong. Magnets are attracted to their polar opposite. So if we call the end of the needle that points north the north end, then the actual location it's pointing to must be magnetically (by not physically) south. But we still call it the north magnetic pole because it's at the north end of the Earth.
The Earth's magnetic field is caused by all the super-hot iron in its outer core spinning as it rotates. The poles of the Earth's magnetic field are fairly near the actual geographical north and south pole, so it can be used to approximate where north is. If you need real precision, you have to know your latitude and longitude on the Earth to figure out the difference between magnetic north and true north. This is called magnetic declination, and it isn't always the same because the magnetic poles of the Earth wander around. They're not even exactly opposite each other!
