Compass

Key Stage 3

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A compass is a very small magnet that can freely spin around its center to show the direction of a magnetic field.

A compass will point with one end towards the north and the other towards the south.

Then end point to the North is called the North Seeking Pole and the one pointing to the South is the South Seeking Pole.

Some very small compasses are used to draw the magnetic field around a magnet. These are called plotting compasses.

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These compasses show the direction of the magnetic field of a bar magnet.	These compasses show the direction of Earth's magnetic field.