North pole vs magnetic North pole vs geomagnetic North pole
In: Physics
The regular poles are set by the axis of Earth’s rotation.
The magnetic poles are set by where the Earth’s magnetic field comes out of the surface of the Earth, thus when your compass aligns to North, it’s aligning to that specific point where the Earth’s magnetic north is (on the surface).
However, the magnetic poles are not on *precisely* opposing sides of the Earth, and as a result a lot of modeling of the Earth’s magnetic field use a simplification that results in two perfectly opposing poles (i.e. the model pretends that, instead of a complex and inhomogeneous mass of really hot junk whirling around the Earth’s core, there’s just a really powerful bar magnet buried down there). These are the geomagnetic poles.
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