Question

Bar magnets always align themselves in the North-South direction when suspended freely in air.
A.True
B.False

Answer 1

Hint: The bar magnet has two poles i.e. North pole and South pole. For a freely suspended bar magnet, Earth acts as a natural magnet. When earth rotates, the ions in its core also rotate. This causes flow of current in the core and due to this magnetic field is generated in the crust. Hence, magnetic poles are formed. These magnetic poles of the natural magnet attract and repel the poles of the bar magnet.

Complete answer:
Just like a bar magnet, earth also has its magnetic field. This magnetic field is produced due to generation of current in the earth's core. As the earth rotates, various ions in its core also rotate resulting in generation of current in the core.
Due to this magnetic field, magnetic poles are created. Those poles are North magnetic poles and South magnetic poles. Earth has two geographical poles which are the North Pole and South Pole. But these geographical poles and magnetic poles are not the same. The geographical axis and magnetic axis are at 17.5 degree from each other.
Direction of the earth's magnetic field is from geographical south to geographical north.
Thus, the north pole of the bar magnet points toward the south magnetic pole and north geographic pole and the south pole of the bar magnet points toward the north magnetic pole but south geographical pole.
Therefore, when a bar magnet is suspended freely in air, it aligns itself in the North-South direction.

Hence, the correct answer is option A i.e. True.

Note:
If we assume that there's a huge magnet in earth's core, then the north pole of this magnet is actually the south magnetic pole and similarly the south pole of the magnet is actually the north magnetic pole.
The needle in a compass points towards the north magnetic pole and not north geographical poles.