How do we know which end of a magnet is North?

Question

Is there like a “standard” that it’s compared to or???

In: 21

Answer 1

“North” and “South” are arbitrary, just like “positive” or “negative” charges in electricity. We could have named it “john” instead of “north”, and “suzy” instead of “south”. Or “south” instead of “north”, and “north” instead of “south”.

Those are just two opposite polarities. Opposite polarities attract.

If you get two magnets and put them together, and they attract, you know that the two ends that attracted are of the opposite polarities, so you name one “north”, and the other one “south”.

Now if you’ve got a third magnet, put one end of it near the one you named “north” and it attracts, you now know that this one is “south”.