Category

Earth’s magnetic field

29/05/2020
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Magnets in space

Who’s excited for the SpaceX launch on Saturday? We certainly are! For those of you unsure, Nasa and SpaceX are making history this Saturday 30th May, by launching two astronauts into space from US soil for the first time since 2011! Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are due to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) at 8.22pm UK time, in a spacecraft built by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company. If successful, this will be the first time this act would have been performed by a privately-owned company. The mission... Read More

17/12/2013

All about the Earth’s magnetic field

The Earth behaves like one large magnet; we know this for certain because of the visible effects on a magnetic compass by the Earth’s magnetic field. In 1600 William Gilbert was the first physician to publish his findings on the Earth’s magnetic field and a hypothesis for its origin in his book titled de Magnete.

17/10/2013
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Animal magnetism – Nature’s own satellite navigation system

The Earth produces its own magnetic field, which emanates from its magnetic inner iron core. On the Earth’s surface the magnetic field is extremely weak compared to the permanent magnets used in many every day appliances. At the magnetic poles the Earth’s magnetic field is approximately 0.7 Gauss compared to the Gauss value of a relatively small 10mm diameter x 5mm thick N42 neodymium magnet which can reach 5100 Gauss. It is this magnetic field that makes a compass point north but for many species, the Earth’s magnetic field has... Read More