THE EARTH IS LIKE A MAGNET WITH THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE AT THE ARCTIC AND SOUTH AT THE ANTARCTIC
WRONG!!
Well actually RIGHT and WRONG!!! Yes the Earth IS like a great big magnet with a pole at the Arctic and the other at the Antarctic but.......they are the "wrong way round"
When magnets were first discovered it was found (as every school pupil knows) that if they are freeley suspended they always end up pointing North/South. Well.....it was decided that one end would be
called the "north seeking end" (the end which points north) and the other the "south seeking end". Also as everyone knows, 2 similar ends repel each other and 2 opposite ends attract each other.
After a while it became a bit of a mouthful to keep saying "north seeking end" and the word "seeking" got dropped, so the NORTH end (or pole) pointed to geographic north. Therefore, since the NORTH pole was attracted to geographic NORTH then there
must be a magnetic SOUTH pole at Geographic north and vice versa! Strange as it may seem the Earth seems to have an upside down magnet inside it! the magnetic field lines which always run from magetic North to magnetic South run from the Antarctic towards the Arctic.