Magnetic compasses are mechanical devices containing a magnetized needle that’s free to move within the compass housing. The needle responds to the Earth’s magnetic field, its red arrow ...

Opinion: In this op-ed, retired Navy Capt. John Cordle shares why he chose to retire from his position as a federal worker ...

One of the most taken-for-granted pieces of equipment on a boat is the magnetic compass. The compass is the basic navigational instrument aboard a boat, especially when out of sight of land.

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 globe.

In 1834, while surveying and subdividing the layout of 13 townships in land that would one day become northern Wisconsin, ...

The Compass Rose, a 12-point circular magnetic compass, painted nearly 100 years ago onto the tarmac at the northwest corner of Santa Monica Airport, was officially designated as a historic ...

The earliest known compasses were made in China’s Han Dynasty, between 300 and 200 BCE. These simple instruments were made from a lodestone—a naturally occurring, magnetically-charged mineral ...

“You can think of each atom as a compass needle,” said Dawson Hewatt, a graduate student in Regal’s lab at JILA. “And we have a billion compass needles, which could make for really precise measurement ...

On Earth, the magnetic field of our planet points a compass north, but in space, things are a bit more complicated. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission ...