how do you determine the north pole side of a magnet. does it attract or repell? thanks john?

Answer 1

Both ends of the magnet attract iron filings. One way would be to look for the marking N and if that is not marked, get a magnet with end marked and bring the suspected end to the end marked as N on the other magnet. They should repel each other (like poles repel).

Another way would be to tie a string to the magnet in its centre and suspend it from ur hand. The N pole faces south and the south pole faces the North.

Answer 2

lay the magnet on a flat piece of styrofoam floating in a very still bucket of water. the magnet will eventually rotate to align itself with the earth's magnetic field. The end pointing north (as evidenced by the north star, the motion of the sun, or local map :^) is the north end of the magnet.

The previous answerer is mistaken. The end of a magnet that points (approximately) toward the Earth's geographic North Pole is labeled as the north pole of the magnet; correspondingly, the end that points south is the south pole of the magnet.

Answer 3

Place it on something that will float it in water, the north pole of the magnet will point south.