Q.The earth's magnetic field at the equator is approximately 4 x 10^-5 T. Estimate the earth's dipole moment. (Radius of the earth = 6.4 x 10^6 m)

Neutral points are locations where the net magnetic field is zero, so the magnet's field B equals and opposes the earth's horizontal field B_H.

When a bar magnet is placed on a horizontal surface, neutral points are the positions where the magnetic field due to the magnet exactly balances the horizontal component of the earth's magnetic field.

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Declination = angle between the magnetic meridian and the geographic (true) meridian at a place.

The geographic meridian is the vertical plane through the geographic north–south line, while the magnetic meridian is the vertical plane containing the earth's magnetic field (the direction a freely suspended magnet points) at that place. The angle between these two pla …

Earth's magnetic dipole moment ≈ 8 × 10²² J T⁻¹.

The Earth behaves like a giant magnetic dipole. Its magnetic moment is approximately

$m \approx 8.0\times10^{22}\ \text{A m}^2 = 8.0\times10^{22}\ \text{J T}^{-1}$ …

The angle between the magnetic and geographic axes is the magnetic declination.

Declination is the horizontal angle between the geographic (true north) meridian and the magnetic meridian. The angle of dip is the angle the Earth's total field makes with the horizontal — a different quant …

Declination = angle between geographic north and magnetic north.

The resultant earth field magnitude satisfies B² = B_H² + B_V².

The earth's total magnetic field B resolves into a horizontal component B_H and a vertical component B_V, which are mutually perpendicular. Their vector sum gives

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Earth's surface magnetic field $B \sim 10^{-5}$ T.

The Earth behaves like a giant magnet. The magnitude of its magnetic field at the surface is only a few tenths of a gauss.

Since $1\ \text{gauss} = 10^{-4}\ \text{tesla}$, a typical value of $0.3$–$0.6$ gauss corresponds to

$B \approx (3\text{–}6)\times10^{-5}\ \text{T} \sim 10^{-5}\ \text{T}.$

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The plane described is the geographic meridian.

At a place, the geographic meridian is the vertical plane that passes through the geographic (rotational) axis of the Earth — i.e. the vertical plane containing the longitude circle (line of longitude) through that place.

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Together these three quantities fully specify the magnitude and direction of Earth's magnetic field at any location.

The three elements

1. Magnetic declination ($\theta$): the angle between the geographic (true) north and the magnetic north (as shown by a compass) at a given location.
2. Angle of dip / inclination ($\delta$ or $I$): the angle the Earth's total magnetic field makes with the horizontal plane at that location. …

Earth's magnetism is attributed to the dynamo effect: convective circulation of the molten, conducting outer core, driven by heat and the earth's rotation, sustains large-scale electric currents that produce the observed magnetic field.

The earth's core consists of a solid inner core and a fluid outer core made largely of molten iron and nickel, which are good electrical conductors. Radioactive heating and the earth's rotation (Coriolis effect) drive large-scale convective circulation of this electrically conducting fluid. Motion of a conductor through an existing (even very weak, seed) magnetic field induces electric currents in it (electromagnetic induction), and these currents in turn produce their own magnetic field. Under the right conditions this feedback becomes self-sustaining and amplifying — a natural magnetohydrodynamic 'dynamo' — maintaining a magnetic field over geological timescales, roughly (though not exactly) aligned along the earth's rotational axis, which is why it approximates a dipole field with poles near the geographic poles.

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Frequency of a magnetic needle: n = (1/2π)√(MB_H/I) ⇒ n² ∝ B_H.

A magnetic needle of magnetic moment M and moment of inertia I oscillating in a horizontal field B_H behaves like a torsional oscillator with time period

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Declination is the angle between true (geographic) north and magnetic north at a place.

At any point on the Earth's surface, the magnetic meridian (the vertical plane containing the Earth's magnetic axis, i.e. the direction a compass needle points) generally does not coincide exactly with the geographic meridian (the vertical plane containing the Earth's rotational/geographic axis, i.e. true north-south).

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