The next time you are trudging towards the North Pole remember to make the right adjustment to your compass reading. If you do not you will end up in the wrong place – and the North Pole is not the easiest part of the world to get to at the best of times.
Having two north poles is confusing, but there it is. One is the magnetic north pole. The other is the true North Pole, the one that everyone tries to reach at the top of the world. This lies at the northern end of the imaginary line drawn through the centre of the earth, around which it is supposed to spin. At the other end is the South Pole.
As the earth spins, movements in its outer core of molten rock set up a magnetic field which is concentrated at the north and south magnetic poles. Because the earth actually spins on a slightly different axis to the imaginary north-south one, magnetic north is somewhere in northern Canada, about 2570 kilometres from the North Pole. Magnetic south is the same distance from the true South Pole.
The position of the two magnetic poles varies a little each year as the earth shifts slightly on its axis. By taking this small change into account, navigators can find their way around the world with their compasses, because a compass needle always point towards the magnetic north pole.
Picture Credit : Google
