The Earth may be a giant magnet in terms of size, but it has a very weak magnetic field. The Earth's filed extends relatively far in space (magnetosphere)
Still, if you take a magnet on Earth, and align it properly, the field of the magnet and of the Earth's field can add up, making the magnet a tiny bit stronger.
If you move away from Earth's field, then you can't use this tiny gain.
However, there are other fields in space. Some are much bigger (in size) although the flux density in even weather than Earth's, in our corner of space (the Sun has a magnetic field and the Galaxy has a magnetic field that may indirectly polarize starlight)
2007-01-15 14:10:50
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answer #1
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answered by Raymond 7
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Magnets produce a magnetic field, and magnetic fields don't require a medium to propagate through. I guess technically they're still in the Earth's magnetic field anyway, because magnetic field strength is determined by 1/d^2 (from memory), it's just that after a while the effect becomes negligible. So basically yes, magnets would work in space. There were many magnets on the space shuttle that were components of other devices (in motors, for example).
2016-05-24 19:32:05
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answer #2
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answered by Mary 4
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Nope.
The local effect based entirely on one magnet's own field strength vastly overwhelms any local effects from the earth's magnetic field.
Magnets in space act just like they do on earth. Which is a GOOD thing -- 'cause lots of our early robotic space probes used magnetic recording (tape, hard drive, etc.) to store the data they collected while it was waiting to be sent by radio to earth -- if magnets were different in space, we'd have only received garbage ;-)
2007-01-15 14:46:05
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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not really. magnetic field of earth adds to one pole of magnet and subtracts from other, so it all cancells out and magnet will be same strength in space.
2007-01-15 13:56:49
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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no. magnets are the strongest when they are aligned with the earth's magnetic field.
2007-01-15 14:02:57
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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No. Magnets do not vary in their strength.
2007-01-15 13:56:24
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answer #6
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answered by DT 4
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