How does a magnetic compass work? Well, it’s all down to basic physics and human ingenuity. The key component of a standard baseplate compass is its magnetized needle, which is allowed to spin freely ...

At some point during our primary school careers, most of us probably constructed a simple compass, often by floating a ...

Some inventions are so simple that it’s hard to improve them. The magnetic compass is a great example — a magnetized needle, a bit of cork, and a bowl of water are all you need to start navigating the ...

“Magnets, how do they work?” asked Insane Clown Posse, a hip-hop duo, in their 2009 song “Miracles”. A flurry of recent papers suggests physicists did not quite have the full picture either. A new ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

MIT physicists have demonstrated a new form of magnetism that could one day be harnessed to build faster, denser, and less power-hungry "spintronic" memory chips. The new magnetic state is a mash-up ...

Compass Diversified Holdings has continued its strategic buying philosophy with the purchase of a century-old Rochester, N.Y., company whose product line includes the manufacture of rare -earth ...

Modern steel ships warp a magnetic compass with both permanent and induced magnetism, and the binnacle is packed with clever countermeasures to cancel it out. This breaks down hard iron vs soft iron ...