the earth is a giant magnet please explain....?

Question

yeh...er....i need like....LOADSA INFO! please do this and i will give you prase and love you forever and ever...:)

Answer 1

Basically a magnet is created by the coordination of the spins of electrons and the nuclei of an iron atom. This process is basically to how earths magnetic field is created. Remember the earths core is basically a big ball of liquid iron spinning at the center of the earth. so when it spins, viola, a magnetic field is generated. the actual process is alot more complex but thats the basics. Dyanmo theory is what is believed to explain the generation of magnetic fields by planetary bodies...i would suggest reading up on the link below...

Answer 2

I got my INFO from http://interactive2.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_category/get_answer.asp?id=477

In a sense, YES. You probably know that the Earth is stratified; a section is pictured here. In radius it is composed of layers having different chemical composition and different physical properties. The crust of the Earth has some permanent magnetization, and the core of the Earth, the outer part of which is liquid iron and the inner of which is solid iron, generates its own magnetic field, sustaining the main part of the field we measure at the surface. So we could say that the Earth is, therefore, a ‘magnet’. But there is no giant bar magnet near the Earth’s center, despite the depictions you may have seen in elementary textbooks on geology and geophysics. Permanent magnetization cannot occur at high temperatures, like temperatures above 650 degrees centigrade or so, when the thermal motion of atoms becomes sufficiently vigorous to destroy the ordered orientations needed to establish permanent magnetization. The core of the Earth has a temperature of several thousand degrees, and therefore it is not permanently magnetized.

Answer 3

The premise is very easy actually. The core of the Earth is made mostly of iron. So when the Earth spins as fast as it does, the iron becomes a gigantic magneto. The magnetic energy flows in such a way that its released at the north pole... and thats why the compass points North...

Now you can search "iron", "core", magetic force, electromagnetos, compass, always points north on internet, and you'll get all the info you need...

Answer 4

http://science.howstuffworks.com/compass.htm

Read the link, but they basically come up with this:

"No one knows for sure, but there is a working theory currently making the rounds. As seen on the above, the Earth's core is thought to consist largely of molten iron (red). But at the very core, the pressure is so great that this superhot iron crystallizes into a solid. Convection caused by heat radiating from the core, along with the rotation of the Earth, causes the liquid iron to move in a rotational pattern. It is believed that these rotational forces in the liquid iron layer lead to weak magnetic forces around the axis of spin. "