Compass

=Compass=

In the Northern Hemisphere, a compass always points North. Why is this so? What happens in the Southern Hemisphere?

Here is what we found on Long Island, New York:
[|Caitlin], [|Rohan], [|Brian], and [|Jocelyn] found our answers. As we found out, the center of the earth is a big magnet! Since the compass needle is a magnet it will attract to other objects that have magnetism. When you put that object really close the compass needle will follow that object. When you take that object away the compass needle will follow the iron in the core of the earth. If you take 2 strong magnets and put them close to each other but not touching you can still move the magnet because of the force of magnetism. The earth’s magnet is able to rotate light magnets so they face its north pole. So here in the Northern Hemisphere, a compass always points north.

**Here is what we in Moturoa, New Zealand, think.**
= = We had a look with the compass today and we found out the the compass needle always points north.

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See how the needle points to the North. [|Braden] took the photo. We weren't too sure why but we looked up in a book and we will tell you tomorrow. We were very busy today having a whole school picnic at the beach and a swim in our school pool and tidying up our classroom for the end of year.

The compass always points north because of a magnetic force that pulls the compass needle towards the North Pole.

By [|Miriam], Georgina, [|Braden] and Zach.