---

A mysterious force.

Legend has it that a shepherd of sheep from ancient Greece, called · # Magnes, was walking some day with his sheep. Suddenly he felt that a mysterious force was holding him and his sandals were as if stuck to the ground.

• Without a doubt, you are a magic force - said #Magnes looking at the ground -. Drop my sandals; I need them. But nobody answered him. Then #Magnes took off his sandals and checked that he was barefoot if he could walk.

What had happened?

That #Magnes sandals had nails and the ground had magnetic mineral. Without knowing it #Magnes had discovered the magnet.

---

Properties of the magnet.

A magnet is a piece of magnetic iron, that is, it has properties to attract iron objects. This property that magnets have is called #MAGNETISM.

All magnets have two poles: ✹ North pole. ✹ South pole. If we approach the north pole of a magnet to the north pole of another magnet, both repel each other. The same happens if we bring the south pole of a magnet to the south pole of another magnet. However, two magnets confronted by different poles attract.

---

Because the earth behaves like a magnet?

It is probable that the innermost zone of the terrestrial sphere is formed for the most part by magnetic materials of iron. Therefore, the earth behaves like a great magnet.
And, like all magnets, the earth has:

A magnetic north pole.
A magnetic south pole.

---

#The compass.

It is a device that serves to orient itself and works thanks, precisely, to the fact that the earth behaves like a great magnet. The needle of the compass is a magnet. As the different poles attract each other, the magnetic south pole of the earth attracts the north pole of the compass magnet. For this reason, the needle of the compass always points to the magnetic south pole, that is to say the geographic north.

---

DID YOU KNOW...?
The first ones to use the compass were the Chinese, from whom the Arabs received it, who in turn introduced it to Europe. The first safe news about its use is dated at the end of the 13th century IN ITALY. I play a very important role in the progress of the navigation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
source: Educational guide "Science within everyone's reach".

I hope you enjoy this interesting post, until a next opportunity.