Why magnet does not contain east or west pole?
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Why does a magnet have no east or west pole?
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22 Answers
Malcolm Shute
Malcolm Shute, Keen consumer and advocat of the popularisation of science
Answered Aug 3, 2017 · Author has 2.4k answers and 1.7m answer views
Originally Answered: Why aren't there east or west magnets?
Let's first go back to the beginning of the study of magnets.
You was the first person to study magnets? We don't know... it all happened millennia ago.
People found that some stones, when dangled on a length of thin twine, would swing round until they aligned themselves in a North-South direction.
It did not take long for those people to turn this into a useful tool, to help them navigate (at sea, or across barren landscapes).
We now know that this was the invention of the compass, and that the stone was aligning itself with Earth's magnetic field, and that this is very close to the Earth's geographic axis of rotation.
These special stones were called lodestones (lead-stones, since they led the navigator in the correct direction). One end was labelled "North-seeking" and the other end was labelled "South-seeking".
This became abbreviated to "North" and "South". But, we now know, that since like poles repel while unlike poles attract, there must therefore be a South magnetic pole at the Earth's geographic North pole, and a North magnetic pole at the Earth's geographic South pole.
The Earth has no magnetic poles in the East-West alignment. So, we have no magnets that align themselves that way.
Answer:
Every magnet has two sides: a north pole and a south pole. We use these names because if you hang a magnet from a thread, the magnet's north pole points (almost) towards the north direction. This is because the Earth's core (its centre) is a large, weak magnet.