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If you're lost in the woods, your best chance of finding your way might be a compass, they can help you in all different situations.

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If you're lost in the woods, your best chance of finding your way might be a tiny magnet.

A magnet is what makes a compass point north -- the small magnetic pin in a compass is suspended so that it can spin freely inside its casing and respond to our planet's magnetism.

A compass needle aligns itself and points toward the top of Earth's magnetic field, giving explorers and lost souls a consistent sense of direction.
How it works
A compass points north because all magnets have two poles , a north pole and a south pole, and the north pole of one magnet is attracted to the south pole of another magnet. (You may have seen this demonstrated by a pair of simple bar magnets or refrigerator magnets pushed end to end.)

The Earth is a magnet that can interact with other magnets in this way, so the north end of a compass magnet is drawn to align with the Earth's magnetic field. Because the Earth's magnetic North Pole attracts the "north" ends of other magnets, it is technically the "South Pole" of our planet's magnetic field.
True north
While a compass is a great tool for navigation, it doesn't always point exactly north. This is because the Earth's magnetic North Pole is not the same as "true north," or the Earth's geographic North Pole . The magnetic North Pole lies about 1,000 miles south of true north, in Canada.

And making things even more difficult for the compass-wielding navigator, the magnetic North Pole isn't even a stationary point. As the Earth's magnetic field changes, the magnetic North Pole moves. Over the last century, it has shifted more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) toward Siberia, according to scientists at Oregon State University.

This difference between true north and the north heading on a compass is an angle called declination. Declination varies from place to place because the Earth's magnetic field is not uniform it dips and undulates.

These local disturbances in the field can cause a compass needle to point away from both the geographic North Pole and the magnetic North Pole. According to the United States Geological Survey, at very high latitudes , a compass needle can even point south.

By using charts of declination or local calibrations, compass users can compensate for these differences and point themselves in the right direction.
Got a question? Email it to Life's Little Mysteries and we'll try to answer it. Due to the volume of questions, we unfortunately can't reply individually, but we will publish answers to the most intriguing questions, so check back soon.

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Molika Ashford - Life's Little Mysteries Contributor

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If you're lost in the woods, your best chance of finding your way might be a tiny magnet. A magnet is what makes a compass point north -- the small magnetic pin in a compass is suspended so that it can spin freely inside its casing and respond to our planet's magnetism.

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Compass  can help people from getting lost and get them to there destination. Sometimes they can help you more than a map

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Whenever I have to travel to a new city, I want to have a map or better yet, a Global Positioning System in my car. These tools can keep me from getting lost and get me to my destination. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a new territory and that GPS saved me. There was a time, however, when I found myself in a place where neither a map nor the GPS could help. I was in a remote part of Canada where there were no signs and not even any roads. No maps were available for this territory, and if I had had a GPS device - which I didn't - it would have had to furnish directions using landmarks like trees or hills. I was, quite literally, in deep weeds. What I needed was a compass.

No matter where you are, a compass can tell you where your true north is. It can direct you when all else fails. And that's what you and I need as we interact with Generation iY today, because we are now in uncharted territory. We must diagnose the challenges, and give them a compass as they move into their future. We've never faced challenges quite like those in this generation, nor have we faced so many baffling questions - including the ones rolling around inside of me as I write this blog:

* Has constant exposure to technology lowered the emotional intelligence of a generation?

* Does our kids' premature launch into school (at ages four or five) foster a postponed launch into adulthood (at ages twenty-six or later)?

* Is the early affirmation kids receive from adults causing narcissism and depression for them later on?

* Has the increased time playing video games lowered the grades that boys make in school?

* Does the heavy access to social media (Facebook, Twitter and so on) impede the development of mature relational skills?

* Have antiquated teaching methods caused a disconnect between adult and student generations?

* Do the lies we adults (especially parents) tell our kids actually return to haunt them in the form of anger and disillusionment?

* Will the expanded population of Generation iY in a challenged worldwide economy spark violence and antisocial behavior?

Then there's the $64,000 question: What do we do to steer Generation iY back on course and keep them there? How do we prevent ourselves from being overwhelmed by the challenges? Where do we begin to address the issues?

In the next few days, I plan to offer a list of five essentials we must pass on to this emerging generation of kids.
What are your chief concerns?
Tim

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We Need a Compass, Not a Map - Growing Leaders

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Whenever I have to travel to a new city, I want to have a map or better yet, a Global Positioning System in my car. These tools can keep me from getting lost and get me to my destination. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a new territory and that GPS...

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The compass is used for navigation, location and direction. People use it to find their way,

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The compass is used for navigation, location and direction. People use it to find their way, whether it is on a hiking trail or on a trip to a new location. It is an instrument composed of a suspended magnetic pointer that is attracted to the polarity of the North Pole.

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The compass is important by letting people like calombas
and china explore new parts of the world that never been seen.

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The compass was an extremely powerful invention that changed the world forever. These changes were both good and bad; depending on whose point of view you're listening to.

The compass is a navigational tool that uses the magnetic poles of the earth to find magnetic north. It has many good effects like the fact that people don't have to rely on less accurate navigational devices to get themselves from point A to point B. The compass gave people more time to concentrate on things besides navigation, like food and shelter. Therefore people could travel more comfortably because they wouldn't be spending all their energy on navigating.

Explorers wouldn't get lost as easily because of inaccurate signs like seaweed and dead fish in the water (both of which were used before compasses were invented). Another benefit was that it made it possible for people like Columbus and the Chinese to explore parts of the world they had never been to before. If Columbus hadn't picked up his compass and set out on a mission to go around the world then we might still be living in Europe.

The compass also helped make bigger discoveries about magnetism and the earth's poles, which can help identify iron deposits and also help find metal things. Also nowadays most computers and DVD players use magnetism to store data. So maybe if the compass hadn't been invented, you wouldn't be looking at this web page right now.

The compass kept sea explorers from giving up on expeditions because they weren't able to find the place they were going, and made it so that ideas could spread a whole lot faster. It used to take months to travel from one city to another, with the compass it made those previously tedious treks much easier and less confusing. The compass also allowed people to travel more often because they didn't have to depend on nature and certain weather events that only happen during certain seasons. Example: Monsoon season, tides, the moon and stars and the sun along with migrating birds and animals.

Another slightly different benefit of the compass is that it helped with feng-shui. People relied heavily on this instrument to help them with their interior designing because supposedly it told you where to put things (although it seems to me that the northern rooms in your house would be a little crowded and your other rooms a little bare, don't you think?).

People depend on the compass and have depended on it for a very long time. The compass has been used by some of the most famous people in history: Chinese explorer Zheng He, who used the compass as a navigational device; Marco Polo, who is said to have carried a compass with him when he returned to Venice after twenty years serving the Kublai Khan Court; William Gilbert, a scientist and Physician of Queen Elizabeth I; King Edward III; Prince Henry of Portugal, also known as 'The Navigator'; and Ferdinand Magellan, another Portuguese explorer. The Vikings used it, as did Arab traders and Pirates. The compass has crossed the world with its extraordinary power, and everyone from ruffians to royalty has used it to guide the way to new places and back home.

WOODEN, WELL PROTECTED COMPASS

However, the compass was also a negative thing. Among some of its drawbacks are these; it enabled Columbus to invade the Americas. This was a problem for the Native Americans living there because they were subjected to such things as disease and slavery. The explorers used the gold and other natural resources for their own benefit and the Native Americans were not given profit. Before Columbus got here, the Native Americans had a relatively stable world (despite the fights between tribes). Maybe without the compass Native Americans would still have the land they originally had and they wouldn't have to share it with Europeans.

Also, seafarers tended to not work as hard because they could just look down at their compass in order to tell what direction they needed to go. They didn't have to pay as much attention to the sea, so they became less observant, blind to the beauty of their work, and closed up within their amazing compasses. All technologies seem to have that effect on people. We become lazy as it becomes more and more a part of our lives. The compass is no exception.
Another drawback of the compass is that it's more complicated, harder to understand and it takes time to learn how to read it. It's hard to read on a moving boat because it gets rocked about and isn't completely accurate all of the time. It can also be interfered with quite easily. If you're on a steel boat, then your compass won't

work as well or has a higher chance of being inaccurate. If there are other magnets nearby, strong ones, then they can interfere with it as well, along with pieces of metal nearby. Another risk of inaccuracy is that magnetic north doesn't exactly line up with true north (in fact they are about 800 miles apart) so that you can't be sure you're going in exactly right direction. You also have to have other things helping you besides the compass because of how unreliable it can be. They break much more easily than the stars (people used stars to find their way before the compass... and after it as well) so you have to replace it every now and then and they probably take up more money and more space than the stars did too.

The compass started out as a simple piece of lodestone and a steel needle floating on water. The developments since then have made it the enclosed, liquid filled device we know today. The first development was to use a hammered steel spoon shape, attached to a base made of lodestone. The bowl of the spoon pointed north while the handle pointed south. Then a few years later the 'spoon' was transformed into a lodestone needle, making it more portable and a whole lot less bulky. The needle was often attached to a thread or a piece of wood or cork so that it could spin freely.

However, this didn't stop it from going haywire so after a little while they attached the needle to a pivot so it was limited to strictly circular motion. Then the invention of the compass card made it more stable, less likely to make mistakes, and much more accurate.

Soon after, the cardinal points were narrowed down to the simple 360° we know today so that there weren't tons of symbols and directions going every which way. But the compass was still exposed to the elements, so they then figured out a way to enclose it in glass so that it would be harder for the weather to mess with it.

A few years later, after this enclosed compass had been in use for a while, people discovered that liquid filled compasses were more accurate because the needle is freer to move and sticks less often, so the glass boxed compasses were filled with liquid and thus updated for newer and more accurate use.

A few more years passed and the compass became a necessity among sailors and explorers alike. The compass became a part of life for hikers and travelers and then the new century came, and with it new inventions. GPS for example, the electronic device revered by so many. The Gyrocompass was invented as well, a sort of compass for the modernized world. And spinning devices, navigational tools used with compasses to make directions and bearings even more accurate, were invented as well. Soon, all these electronics became melded into our idea of a compass.

Now remember back to the beginning of the section where this phenomenal invention was merely a piece of steel and a lodestone rubbed together. Think about that, and think about how far this invention has taken us. From old Chinese fortunetellers to Christopher Columbus to rock climbers and sailors today, the compass has been a huge part of our lives for centuries, a part of our lives that keeps developing and developing, never being shoved aside, always being one of the most important and revolutionary inventions that graced this earth.

The compass has helped solve mysteries and uncover treasures; it was there for discovery after discovery. It has been here for so long it's hard to imagine life could be the same without it. It has had an enormous impact on our world. There are some who would say the compass led to terrible occurrences; others say it was a part of the noblest quests the earth has known. Either way, it made a huge mark in the pages of history and without it, our world would be a completely different place. Think about it. I'm sure that after a while you'll come to agree with me: The compass really was one of the most powerful inventions of all time.
FIRST COMPASS- INVENTED IN CHINA Home BETWEEN 221 AND 206 B.C.

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The compass was an extremely powerful invention that changed the world forever. These changes were both good and bad; depending on whose point of view you're listening to. The compass is a navigational tool that uses the magnetic poles of the earth to find magnetic north.