Question

Determine the directions in the class or laboratory. Tie a thread to the centre of a bar magnet and hang it from a stand. Note the direction in which the magnet settles and turn it around again. Let it settle and note the direction. Do this many times. What do you observe?

Answer 1

When the bar magnet is suspended freely with a thread, it always comes to rest in the same direction. Even if we turn it around and allow it to settle again several times, one end of the magnet points approximately towards the north and the other end towards the south.

Thus, we observe that a freely suspended bar magnet always settles in the north-south direction. The end pointing towards the north is called the north pole, and the end pointing towards the south is called the south pole.