Is the North Pole a south pole?

[UKpete]

I'm confused - I have a Martindale TEK200 Magnetic Indicator and the instruction manual that accompanies it states on page 5:

"Note: also that a compass needle is a North Pole. It is attracted to point towards the south pole of any other magnet and NOT the north pole of any other magnet."

http://www.martindale-electric.co.uk/instructions/TEK

200 instruct rev 1.pdf

And when I use the TEK200 to identify the south pole of a magnet (taking care to use it correctly as defined by their manual), my pocket compass points to the same magnet pole as though it is the earth's north pole.

Is this correct? I always assumed that a compass needle would point towards the north pole of a magnet.

 

[Warpspeed]

I oZ we have spring, summer, autumn, and winter, just like everywhere else.

 

[Warpspeed]

That should have been "Here in oZ"

 

[electricpete]

I'm just wondering whether you "winter" would be the cold season August/July or the hot season Jan/Feb.

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[Warpspeed]

It is mid summer here now. Winter is June/July.

 

[electricpete]

Makes sense. Winter/summer follows the climate/weather and not the calendar. I don't know why I thought otherwise but I wasn't sure.

Is the School year Sept through June? Then you have long winter vacation and back to school in the spring?

Or is the school year March thru November with long summer vacation around Christmastime? (I assume Christmas remains in December).

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[Warpspeed]

Vacation time here is summer. Christmas to first week in February for most people.

The school year follows that same pattern. First term begins in Feb. Second term April, third term July, fourth term October. Exams end of November.

End of school year coincides with Christmas and then vacation time.

 

[Skogsgurra]

A humble proposition to stop this neverending discussion.

Once upon a time, many hundred years ago, it was noticed that silk stockings - when taken off your legs - repelled each other if they were white. Black silk stockings did the same. But if you had one white and one black newly removed stocking they attracted each other. So, the words for electric polarity and charge could just as well be "white silk stocking seeking" for one polarity and "black..." for the other.

Why we finally got positive and negative polarity is not known to me. This is just to illustrate how haphazardly things happen and also to question if the north/south nomenclature is the best. Remember that the north and south poles have switched positions several times over the life of Earth.

So, I think that we should start using colours. My compass needle has a red and a white point. So why not call those two polarities red and white?

Of course, that means that all compass needles need to be painted in red and white in the future - but isn't that a small cost for a big improvement in clarity? I am sure that you all agree with me in this important matter...

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

 

[Warpspeed]

O/k Gunnar, I can follow that logic.

But as the ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic are both white, both will then try to attract the red painted end of your compass.

 

[Skogsgurra]

What about blue and yellow then...?

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

 

[Skogsgurra]

And, hey! Global warming will soon melt the polar ice! We then will have water up north (or is it Up Wite?). And land of some colour (we have to wait and see what colour that is) down south (or Down Red). Or was it the other way round?

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

 

[IRstuff]

and remember, DON'T eat that yellow snow!

TTFN