Polarity[edit]

All magnets have two poles, where the lines of magnetic flux enter and emerge. By analogy with the Earth's magnetic field, these are called the magnet's "north" and "south" poles. The convention in early compasses was to call the end of the needle pointing to the Earth's North Magnetic Pole the "north pole" (or "north-seeking pole") and the other end the "south pole" (the names are often abbreviated to "N" and "S"). Because opposite poles attract, this definition means that the Earth's North Magnetic Pole is actually a magnetic south pole and the Earth's South Magnetic Pole is a magnetic north pole.^[5][6]

The direction of magnetic field lines is defined such that the lines emerge from the magnet's north pole and enter into the magnet's south pole.