A compass is a tool which tells us the direction of North Pole of Earth’s magnetic field. Once you know the direction of North Pole, all other directions can be find out easily. Hence it is a useful tool for navigation and mapping. You can also use it for outdoor activities like hiking, sailing, trekking etc.
But what if you don’t have a compass and you want to find the direction of North Pole. This is much easier than you think. All you need is a needle, a leaf and a bowl partially filled with water. Follow the below simple steps to find the magnetic north of Earth.
Finding North Pole without Compass
- Fill half a bowl with water.
- Place a dry leaf into the bowl in the center of bowl such that the leaf does not make any contact with the wall of the bowl. The leaf should be placed gently so that it does not create any ripples in the water. In case if ripples are created, then wait till the ripples die down.
- As soon as you place the leaf into bowl, it will begin to float on the water surface.
4. Now gently place the needle on to the leaf in any direction. As soon as the needle is placed, it will slowly begin to rotate in the direct of Earth North pole. Once again it is important that leaf with the needle on it does make any contact with the wall of the bowl because it can cause hindrance to the gradual motion of the leaf with the needle due to magnetic field of the Earth.
5. If you do have a compass, you can easily verify that needle is correctly aligned it with Earth’s North pole
By following the above steps, you can sense the weak magnetic field of the Earth without having the compass.
Note: Which end of needle will align with Earth’s magnetic North pole will depend upon how the needle is magnetized.
You can watch the video of compete experiment here: