This was such a fun learning about directions, magnets and how earth’s magnetic field reacted with the magnetic field of the magnetic needle to either repel or attract each other.

For thousand of years, people have been using magnet in form of compass to study directions. This compass can be called an old-fashioned compass. They actually used magnetized needle to find directions. They fitted this needle along a cork or something similar and floated this needle in a bowl of water. The needle would point to North only.

Material required:

Sewing needle
Magnet (horse shoe magnet or fridge magnet)
Wax paper
Scissors
Bowl of water

Directions:

1. Cut a circular piece out of wax paper. Make sure that its diameter is smaller than the needle.

2. Rub the needle along the magnet around 20 times, always in the same direction, starting at the eye and moving towards the point.

3. Poke the needle through the wax paper circle, so that the needle sits centrally on the paper.

4. Take your bowl of water and place the needle and wax paper carefully onto the surface of the water.

5. After a moment, the needle will start to move all by itself. When it stops, it will be lined up with north and south.

The science behind:

When we rub the magnet against the needle, we are magnetising the needle that is transforming it into a temporary magnet. Just like the needle or the magnet in compass reacts ( attracts or repel) with the magnetic field of the earth and thereby tell the direction, this temporary magnet also reacts to the magnetic field of the Earth causing it to align North to South.