magnetic compass
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What is a magnetic compass?
A magnetic compass is a navigational instrument that relies on a magnetic pointer to align with the Earth's magnetic field, thereby indicating direction on the Earth's surface. It is the oldest and most familiar type of compass, used in various forms across different modes of transport and surveying.
The reason magnetic compasses work is that the Earth acts like a large magnet with a north-south field. This causes freely moving magnets to orient themselves in the same direction. Although the Earth’s magnetic field isn’t exactly parallel to the globe's north-south axis, it is close enough for a compass to serve as a useful guide.
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How does a magnetic compass work?
A magnetic compass is a navigational instrument that relies on the Earth's magnetic field to indicate direction. The Earth acts as a large magnet, with a north-south field that causes a magnetized needle to align itself along this field.
The compass needle, typically made of magnetized steel, is mounted on a pivot, allowing it to rotate freely. The needle's direction aligns with the Earth's magnetic field, with one end pointing towards magnetic north and the other towards magnetic south. A compass card marked with directions is placed under the needle, enabling users to determine their heading.
It’s important to note that a compass indicates magnetic north, which varies from true north (geographic north). This difference, known as magnetic declination, requires adjustments for accurate navigation.
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What does a magnetic needle do in a compass?
In a magnetic compass, the magnetic needle serves as the primary component for determining direction on Earth. The needle, typically magnetized iron or steel, aligns itself with the Earth's magnetic field, pointing towards magnetic north. This alignment allows users to orient themselves and determine other directions relative to north. The earliest compasses featured a magnetized needle floated on a stick in water, but later designs suspended the needle on a pin. A compass card with directional points was eventually mounted under the needle, enabling navigators to easily read their heading.
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Why is the magnetic compass important for navigation?
The magnetic compass is a crucial navigational instrument because it determines direction on Earth's surface by aligning with the Earth's magnetic field. It allows travelers to maintain course even when landmarks, the Sun, or stars are obscured.
The magnetic compass works because the Earth acts as a large magnet with a north-south field. Though the compass's accuracy is affected by factors such as magnetic declination and deviation, it remains a reasonably reliable guide. The device has been improved technically over the centuries and is still used today in various forms on ships, aircraft, and land vehicles.
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How did sailors use magnetic compasses in history?
Initially, sailors likely used piloting, which involved steering ships between ports by recognizing landmarks. However, this method required them to remain close to the shore.
The introduction of the magnetic compass allowed sailors to navigate even when the sky was overcast. The compass may have initially served to confirm wind direction when the sun or stars were hidden.
Over time, the compass evolved from a magnetized needle on a wooden splinter to a pivoted needle with a wind rose card for easy heading reading. By the 15th century, sailors recognized that compass needles didn't always point true north but deviated at an angle, a phenomenon known as variation or declination.
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What are the limitations or challenges of using magnetic compasses?
Magnetic compasses, while reliable, face limitations. One challenge is variation (or declination), the inaccuracy due to Earth's magnetic field not perfectly aligning with the north-south axis. This variation differs based on location. Also, local magnetic influences can cause deviation, deflecting the compass needle.
In rapidly accelerating aircraft, liquid-filled compasses can't function well. Tilting can occur, causing incorrect readings due to the influence of the Earth’s vertical magnetic field component. Additionally, stable magnetic conditions can be hard to achieve in cockpits with an array of metal and electrical equipment.
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magnetic compass, in navigation or surveying, an instrument for determining direction on the surface of Earth by means of a magnetic pointer that aligns itself with Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic compass is the oldest and most familiar type of compass and is used in different forms in aircraft, ships, and land vehicles and by surveyors.
Sometime in the 12th century, mariners in China and Europe made the discovery, apparently independently, that a piece of lodestone, a naturally occurring magnetic ore, when floated on a stick in water, tends to align itself so as to point in the direction of the polestar. This discovery was presumably quickly followed by a second, that an iron or steel needle touched by a lodestone for long enough also tends to align itself in a north-south direction. From the knowledge of which way is north, of course, any other direction can be found.
The reason magnetic compasses work as they do is that Earth itself acts as an enormous bar magnet with a north-south field that causes freely moving magnets to take on the same orientation. The direction of Earth’s magnetic field is not quite parallel to the north-south axis of the globe, but it is close enough to make an uncorrected compass a reasonably good guide. The inaccuracy, known as variation (or declination), varies in magnitude from point to point on Earth. The deflection of a compass needle due to local magnetic influences is called deviation.
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Over the centuries a number of technical improvements have been made in the magnetic compass. Many of these were pioneered by the English, whose large empire was kept together by naval power and who hence relied heavily upon navigational devices. By the 13th century the compass needle had been mounted upon a pin standing on the bottom of the compass bowl. At first only north and south were marked on the bowl, but then the other 30 principal points of direction were filled in. A card with the points painted on it was mounted directly under the needle, permitting navigators to read their direction from the top of the card. The bowl itself was subsequently hung on gimbals (rings on the side that let it swing freely), ensuring that the card would always be level. In the 17th century the needle itself took the shape of a parallelogram, which was easier to mount than a thin needle.
During the 15th century, navigators began to understand that compass needles point not directly to the North Pole but rather to some nearby point; in Europe, compass needles pointed slightly east of true north. To counteract this difficulty, British navigators adopted conventional meridional compasses, in which the north on the compass card and the “needle north” were the same when the ship passed a point in Cornwall, England. (The magnetic poles, however, wander in a predictable manner—in more recent centuries, Europeans have found magnetic north to be west of true north—and this must be considered for navigation.)
In 1745 Gowin Knight, an English inventor, developed a method of magnetizing steel in such a way that it would retain its magnetization for long periods of time; his improved compass needle was bar-shaped and large enough to bear a cap by which it could be mounted on its pivot. The Knight compass was widely used.
Some early compasses did not have water in the bowl and were known as dry-card compasses; their readings were easily disturbed by shocks and vibration. Although they were less affected by shock, liquid-filled compasses were plagued by leaks and were difficult to repair when the pivot became worn. Neither the liquid nor the dry-card type was decisively advantageous until 1862, when the first liquid compass was made with a float on the card that took most of the weight off the pivot. A system of bellows was invented to expand and contract with the liquid, preventing most leaks. With these improvements, liquid compasses made dry-card compasses obsolete by the end of the 19th century.
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Modern mariners’ compasses are usually mounted in binnacles, cylindrical pedestals with provision for illuminating the compass face from below. Each binnacle contains specially placed magnets and pieces of steel that cancel the magnetic effects of the metal of the ship. Much the same kind of device is used aboard aircraft, except that, in addition, it contains a corrective mechanism for the errors induced in magnetic compasses when airplanes suddenly change course. The corrective mechanism is a gyroscope, which has the property of resisting efforts to change its axis of spin. This system is called a gyromagnetic compass.