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At what height do navigation compasses stop working?

27 July 2022

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At what height do navigation compasses stop working?

Mike Follows Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK

A compass needle is essentially a thin bar magnet. If it were free to move in all three dimensions, a magnet would line up along any local magnetic field line. Field lines are graphical representations of the strength and direction of the magnetic field in a region of space.

In principle, a navigation compass will work anywhere there are magnetic fields (which exist throughout the universe), although this doesn’t guarantee that it would be helpful as a navigational aid.

Earth’s magnetic field, the magnetosphere, extends to at least two or three …

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