Question

The South pole of Earth’s magnet is in the
A) geographical east
B) geographical west
C) geographical north
D) geographical south

Answer 1

Hint: The Earth’s core generates a magnetic field around the Earth as it acts in the form of a bar magnet. Opposite poles of a bar magnet attract each other.

Complete answer:
Whenever we use a magnetic compass, we can see the magnetic needle aligns itself such that the north pole of the needle points in the geographical north direction and the south pole of the magnetic needle aligns itself with the geographical south pole of the Earth.
However, we know that opposite poles of a magnet attract each other. This means that the magnetic North pole of the needle which aligns itself to the Geometric north pole is actually attracted to the magnetic south pole of the Earth which is located at the geographical north pole of the Earth.
Similarly, the magnetic south pole of the needle, being attracted towards the geometric south pole is actually being attracted to the magnetic north pole of the Earth which is located in the geometric south pole of the Earth.
Hence the correct choice is option (C) since the south pole of Earth’s magnet is located in the geographical north pole of the Earth.

Note:
The use of North and South poles is more of a convention to distinguish between the two poles of the Earth. Since the North pole of a bar magnet would point towards the geographical North pole, conventionally it was called the North Pole. While the geometric North and South poles remain stationary, the magnetic north and south poles change their location and also flip their locations every once in a while.