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There are a few options for adjusting your compass to true north. Given these irregularities, how will you ever reach the North Pole or a true north destination? Read on to find out how you can do it - any time of day and with man-made and natural navigation tools. In North America, one currently runs through the panhandle of Florida up to the Great Lakes and into the Arctic Ocean. Geographical lines do exist where true north and magnetic north are aligned, and these are called agonic lines. For instance, if you hold out a compass in New Zealand, magnetic north will be about 20 degrees east of true north, whereas the declination in Los Angeles is 12 degrees. Magnetic declinations vary from place to place, depending on the intensity of Earth's magnetic fields. That difference is called the magnetic declination and is measured by the angle between true north and magnetic north when plotted on a map. For that reason, there is a difference between true north on a map and the north indicated by your compass. A compass needle is magnetized and freely suspended to allow that horizontal force to pull it toward magnetic north as well.īut Earth's magnet isn't perfectly aligned with the geographical poles. The force of that magnetic field has a horizontal component in the direction of magnetic north. Fluid iron in the planet's core acts like a huge bar magnet, creating a relatively weak magnetic field. Compasses, on the other hand, direct you to magnetic north, a point in the arctic regions of Canada that continually shifts location based on the activity of the Earth's magnetic fields. Each line of longitude begins and ends at the Earth's poles and represents direct north and south travel. True north is a geographical direction represented on maps and globes by lines of longitude. If you want to get from a point at the bottom of a map to one at the top, you need to head true north. To get to the North Pole, or true north, just following your compass needle won't work. So instead, you pull out your compass, watch the needle swing northward and plot a path, right? Wrong.
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Suppose you decide to make a trek to the North Pole. Cartography conventions help people make sense of a map immediately, which makes it easier to find their way.