So - Here we are today asking questions about magnets, still trying to understand them and our relationship if any to them....The more you know the more you realize we do not know....Magnetism - lets read......

The ancient Greeks, originally those near the city of Magnesia, and also the early Chinese knew about strange and rare stones (possibly chunks of iron ore struck by lightning) with the power to attract iron. A steel needle stroked with such a "lodestone" became "magnetic" as well, and around 1000 the Chinese found that such a needle, when freely suspended, pointed north-south.

    The magnetic compass soon spread to Europe. Columbus used it when he crossed the Atlantic ocean, noting not only that the needle deviated slightly from exact north (as indicated by the stars) but also that the deviation changed during the voyage. Around 1600 William Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth I of England, proposed an explanation: the Earth itself was a giant magnet, with its magnetic poles some distance away from its geographic ones (i.e. near the points defining the axis around which the Earth turns). ............http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/Imagnet.html

Posted by Jay Roberts at 04:24 AM | Permalink