BACKGROUND
Ancient Greece and Asian people discovered that certain stones were attracted to
some metal objects. Today we call these stones found naturally in the earth,
“Lodestones.” The word “magnet” comes from the name in Greece called
“magnesia” where many of their special stones are found. Magnets have
fascinated people throughout the ages because of the invisible magnetic force
field around them. Our ancestors were able to use magnets to make simple
compasses, which end of the magnet, which always point north, with an “N” to
help know which way they were traveling. As people began to use magnets, they
discovered they could be used in many different ways.
Our ancient ancestors found that if they tied a magnet to a thin string and
allowed it to swing freely, one end of the magnet would always point northward
towards the Earth’s North Pole, and the other end would always point southward
toward the Earth’s South Pole. They marked the end of the magnet which point
north with an “N” and the opposite end with an “S”. Your compass is actually a