Earth's Magnetic Field Affects Answers.com

The Earth's magnetic field is a miracle that regularly affects our lives in positive, helpful, and sometimes unseen ways. Merely what does this magnetic field look like? How does it aid u.s.? These are of import questions that nosotros are going to cover in this article.

Crusade of World's magnetic field

We actually don't know how World's magnetic field originates! The all-time contender explanation nosotros have is the following.

The Earth has a liquid cadre. This cadre is fabricated upward of two parts, just all we intendance almost in this article is the outer part, which is a molten outer core made entirely of iron. This iron is an electric conductor, so currents tin flow through the outer core. It is idea that these electric currents are the cause of the Earth's magnetic field, but the details are not yet known to science.

Earth'south magnetic field description

The magnetic field forcefulness of the Earth's magnetic field may be smaller than yous look. Magnetic field strength is measured in Tesla (\(\mathrm{T}\)), and the Earth's magnetic field force is in the range of 25 to 65 \(\mu\mathrm{T}\). For reference, the magnetic field strength of a standard fridge magnet is about 1 \(\mathrm{mT}\). That'due south about 40 times stronger!

The shape of the Earth's magnetic field may seem familiar to yous if y'all've seen the magnetic field of a bar magnet before. Like a bar magnet, magnetic field lines emerge from the magnetic due north pole, and curve back and directly into the magnetic southward pole, encasing the entirety of the planet in the process.

The magnetic field that covers the entire planet is called the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is incredibly important to the safety of our planet for one very big reason. In that location are many dangerous things in space, many of which are more than capable of travelling to our planet and causing a massive corporeality of damage to both us and the environment. The magnetosphere protects us from a lot of these things, such as solar winds, which come up from the sun as a form of radiations that could hurt us greatly as well equally damage all the electronics on the planet. Our magnetosphere is able to repel these harmful particles.

Diagram of the Earth's magnetic field

The image below shows what our planet's magnetic field looks similar. Information technology behaves almost exactly like a regular bar magnet.

Earth as a Big Magnet diagram showing the earth's magnetic field lines StudySmarter The Earth's magnetic field lines,Wikimedia Eatables

It's important to know that the North Pole of the Earth is actually the magnetic south pole, which is why in the above epitome the arrows on the magnetic field lines are in the opposite direction as y'all are used to!

Did you know that auroras are caused by the Sun? Storms on the Sun throw charged particles off to every corner of space, including our planet. When these particles come in contact with the Earth, they hit particles in the atmosphere.

Then what does this have to exercise with the Earth's magnetic field? Well, once these charged particles are close enough, the magnetic field pulls them towards the north and south poles. Equally they travel closer and closer to the Earth, they collide with atoms in our atmosphere, increasing the free energy of those atoms. These atoms are at present unstable and will go rid of their energy by emitting photons, which nosotros can meet as light: these are the auroras. The magnetic field of the Earth causes the auroras to but exist visible close to the Earth's magnetic poles.

Earth as a Big Magnet image of an aurora behind a tree StudySmarter An example of an aurora. The light you lot see is a result of particles from the Sun being redirected to the Earth's poles by Earth's magnetic field and colliding with particles in the atmosphere, Wikimedia Eatables.

Compasses and Globe's magnetic field

A compass is one of the about useful tools you tin can have when you need to know where you lot're going. A compass shows you which way north, south, east, and westward are. Withal, across the fact that it uses magnetism to tell you where these directions are, nearly people don't know exactly how they work.

A defining feature of magnets is the fact that they all have a needle with a north pole and a south pole. All n poles attract south poles, and all south poles attract north poles. The metal needle on a compass is a magnet and is therefore afflicted past the magnetic field of the Earth. It will point its due north end to the magnetic due south pole of the Earth at all times.

This means that the Northward Pole as we know information technology is magnetically speaking a south-seeking, or southward pole!

Earth as a Big Magnet image of a compass on a keyring StudySmarter A standard compass. The north pole of the compass needle points towards the Earth's southward-seeking pole, which is the magnetic North Pole,Wikimedia Commons.

The World technically has two north poles! The 'true' or 'geographic' N Pole is correct at the geographic tiptop of the planet, and the magnetic Northward Pole, of which the location is constantly changing, is right at the magnetic top of the Globe's magnetic field. When a compass needle is pointed north, it is pointing to the magnetic N Pole (which is a south pole) and non to the geographic Northward Pole yous see on maps and globes! This difference is very of import if you are close to i of the poles, as the divergence in the direction of the geographic and the magnetic poles will be large there.

The relationship between magnets and the Earth's own magnetic field was first discovered in 1600 past William Gilbert, an English physicist. It wasn't until 1840 that information technology was realised that the source of this field comes from the heart of the Earth, by Carl Gauss.

Earth's magnetic field flip

The magnetic north and southward poles of the Earth will not stay in the aforementioned location forever. It is known to usa that after a catamenia of near 300,000 years on average, these magnetic poles will bandy places entirely. Thankfully, during the flipping of the poles the magnetosphere never fully disappears, then nosotros still take a degree of protection from the dangers of space. Yet, the magnetic field will noticeably weaken during this issue. This tin can crusade many problems, including with navigation.

Earth as a Big Magnet - Central takeaways

The Globe is a big magnet probably due to electric currents running through the molten iron outer core within the planet.
The electric electric current in the Earth generates the magnetosphere, a giant magnetic field that surrounds the unabridged planet.
The magnetosphere protects the planet from harmful radiations such every bit solar winds.
The magnetic poles of the planet will flip over a long flow of fourth dimension.
Compasses are made so that the north pole of the compass needle is always attracted to the magnetic Northward Pole of the Earth while it is in Earth's magnetic field. This makes the magnetic North Pole a due south-seeking, or south pole!