How do you figure out which part of a magnet is positive and which is negative?

Question

I know that opposite poles attract and similar poles repell but if you had a small magnet that didn’t have it’s poles labeled, how would you figure out which side is negative and which is positive?

In: 3

Answer 1

I think you mean North and South, not positive and negative, and the easiest way is to allow the magnet to spin freely and see which way points North. That’s the North end of the magnet (and FWIW the North geographic pole of the Earth is actually the South magnetic pole)