MAGNETIC NEEDLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Magnetic needle

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/mægnˈɛtɪk nˈidəl/ Listen

Magnetic needle

noun

A slender magnet suspended in a magnetic compass on a mounting with little friction; used to indicate the direction of the earth's magnetic pole.

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Etymology of 'Magnetic needle'

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"Magnetic needle" Quotes from Famous Books

... box with its moving needle was first used, it is now admitted, by the cunning merchants of Cathay during their trading expeditions across the stony monotonous plains of Central Asia that lay between the Flowery Land and the civilization of Persia. From Cathay the use of the magnetic needle was introduced to the Arab mathematicians of Baghdad and Cairo, and through them the secret of the lodestone of China was conveyed to the coast towns of the Levant. At Aleppo or Alexandria some astute trader of Amalfi—perhaps his name really ...

— The Naples Riviera • Herbert M. Vaughan

... the doctor admired all these cosmic phenomena, to which his companions paid but little attention; he had noticed, besides, that their appearance always preceded disturbances of the magnetic needle, and he was preparing some observations on the subject which he intended for Admiral ...

— The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras • Jules Verne

... which provide disaffection with its opportunity; and in the natural confusion which attended the revolt from the papacy, the obligations of duty, both political and religious, had become indefinite and contradictory, pointing in all directions, like the magnetic needle ...

— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude

... Power of a Magnet. The magnet best known to us all is the compass needle, but for convenience we will use a magnetic needle in the shape of a bar larger and stronger than that employed in the compass. If we lay such a magnet on a pile of iron filings, it will be found on lifting the magnet that the filings cling to the ends in tufts, but leave it almost bare in the center (Fig. 222). The points ...

— General Science • Bertha M. Clark

... action of a voltaic current on a magnetic needle; and immediately afterwards the splendid intellect of Ampere succeeded in showing that every magnetic phenomenon then known might be reduced to the mutual action of electric currents. The subject occupied all men's thoughts: and in this country Dr. Wollaston sought to convert the deflection ...

— Faraday As A Discoverer • John Tyndall

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