I found myself confused with the terms of magnetic north and magnetic north pole...I found many definitions from the web and the following are my understandings, please point it out if I am wrong, thank you!

-The magnetic north is in the southern hemisphere in the present time
-The magnetic north pole, or north magnetic pole, is in the northern hemisphere now
-The magnetic north is the magnetic south pole and vice versa
-The geomagnetic north pole and the north magnetic pole are the same thing

I found myself confused with the terms of magnetic north and magnetic north pole...I found many definitions from the web and the following are my understandings, please point it out if I am wrong, thank you!

-The magnetic north is in the southern hemisphere in the present time
-The magnetic north pole, or north magnetic pole, is in the northern hemisphere now
-The magnetic north is the magnetic south pole and vice versa
-The geomagnetic north pole and the north magnetic pole are the same thing

Hi, Kingwinner,

Yes, I'd seen some of the stuff on the web and the way it's presented CAN sure be confusing. :)

Simply put, the magnetic north pole is in the Northern Hemisphere. The confusion usually arises because of the terms used when speaking of a compass. The "North Seeking" pole of the compass - actually it's own south pole - points toward magnetic north.

Hope that helped. :)

Hi, Kingwinner,

Yes, I'd seen some of the stuff on the web and the way it's presented CAN sure be confusing. :)

Simply put, the magnetic north pole is in the Northern Hemisphere. The confusion usually arises because of the terms used when speaking of a compass. The "North Seeking" pole of the compass - actually it's own south pole - points toward magnetic north.

Hope that helped. :)
So the magnetic north and the north magnetic pole are both in the northern hemisphere now, right?

The crazy thing to me is that some web sites say that the north magnetic pole is in the southern hemisphere and the word "geomagnetic north pole" is giving me a lot of confusion...

So the magnetic north and the north magnetic pole are both in the northern hemisphere now, right?

Yes. They are the same thing.

The crazy thing to me is that some web sites say that the north magnetic pole is in the southern hemisphere and the word "geomagnetic north pole" is giving me a lot of confusion...

Yeah, the thing is that the terms "north" and "south" don't really mean anything in a physical sense in a magnet. The names were just used to match the directions humans had already established for getting around.

Actually, the poles are set up by the way atoms in domains spin but the terms north and south are just arbitrary - just like when we started using the words left and right. It could have just as easily been the other way around. Nothing MAKES it have to be that way.

Don't let that term geo magnetic bother you. It simply means the magnetism naturally generated by the Earth. ("Geo" = Earth just as in geo-graphy - graphing (mapping out or specific parts of) the Earth.

Well. Actually. Part of the confusion might be in the fact that geomagnetic north pole (the magnetic north pole of the planet Earth) is what would be considered the south pole of a magnet.

In a magnet, the north pole is the pole where the magnetic force lines come out. But, on the earth, it's where they go in.


Now I'm confused.
What I said above is true and is likely some small part of the confusion concerning south poles, but apparently there is a difference between the magnetic north pole and the geomagnetic north pole aside from that...
Weird.

From wikipedia:

"Magnetic North is one of several locations on the Earth's surface known as the "North Pole". Its definition, as the point where the geomagnetic field points vertically downwards, i.e. the dip is 90°, was proposed in 1600 by Sir William Gilbert, a courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, and is still used. It should not be confused with the less frequently used Geomagnetic North Pole. Magnetic North is the place to which all magnetic compasses point, although since the pole marked "N" on a bar magnet points north, and only opposite magnetic poles are attracted to each other, the Earth's magnetic north is actually a south magnetic pole."

"The Geomagnetic North Pole is the pole of the Earth's geomagnetic field closest to true north. The first-order approximation of the Earth's magnetic field is that of a single magnetic dipole (like a bar magnet), tilted about 11° with respect to Earth's rotation axis and centered at the Earth's core. The residuals form the nondipole field. The Geomagnetic poles are the places where the axis of this dipole intersects the Earth's surface. Because the dipole approximation is far from a perfect fit to the Earth's magnetic field, the magnetic field is not quite vertical at the geomagnetic poles. The locations of true vertical field orientation are the magnetic poles, and these are about 30 degrees of longitude away from the geomagnetic poles."

So. The magnetic north pole is where the field lines are vertical. But, I don't really understand what the geomagnetic north pole is. It says the field is not vertical there...

I really have no clue what the geomagnetic north pole is then.


Maybe the geomagnetic pole is where the field lines enter the crust. The magnetic north pole description would seen to indicate that that's what it is, but perhaps it's more of a virtual pole and maybe the field lines are only vertical beneath the crust?