Question

A compass needle is a/an:
A) Iron piece
B) Electromagnet
C) Small Magnet
D) None

Answer 1

Hint:A compass is an Instrument which is used to find the direction of a magnetic field. They are mainly used in navigation to find direction on the earth.

Step-by-Step Explanation:
Step I:
A needle is a pointer in the compass. In a magnetic compass it is placed on a frictionless point. This magnet is free to align itself according to the earth's magnetic field.
Step II:
The Earth has two poles- North Pole and South Pole. Therefore earth has a magnetic field and it acts like a bar magnet. A compass needle is also like a bar magnet and has two poles. It aligns itself according to the earth's magnetic field.
Step III:
This means that the North pole of the needle of the magnetic compass will align itself to the Earth's North pole and the South pole of the needle will point towards the South pole of the Earth.
Step IV:
Therefore, the compass needle is a small magnet.

Option C, is the right answer.

Note:
It is to be noted that Earth has two poles- Geographic poles and magnetic poles . The geographic poles of Earth are different from that of magnetic poles. The geographic poles of the Earth can also be visualized by taking any round object like a ball. Make a straw pass through the middle of the ball so that it passes through both the sides. Now slowly rotate the straw. This straw acts like the axis of rotation of the Earth. The geographic poles are the poles where the straw enters or exits the ball.