41 Compasses are scientific liars. They masquerade as infallible gadgets capable of redeeming even the most wayward. They claim integrity and promise to tell the truth unconditionally, but, left to their own devices, they will lead you astray. Rather than point to true north, the magnetized needle suspended in a compass orients itself with Earth’s magnetic north pole. This so-called “north pole” is misleadingly located in Canada and is generated by the churning of liquid iron deep within the earth’s belly, like a tumbling bowl of chili that refuses to settle after dinner. Thanks to its off-kilter geophysical properties, the earth’s magnetic and geographic north poles are separated by about 500 kilometers. Such a vaguely waving needle may suffice when the destination is at the end of the street, but what happens when an approximate direction is not good enough? What happens when the error is measured in hundreds of kilometers rather than a matter of meters? Because the magnetic pole does not align with the geographic pole, a compass-led traveler must continuously adjust their instrument, always accounting for the angle of declination, the difference between these two “north poles.” It is not unlike sighting-in a bow to account for the distance between the arrow and the bullseye. The angle of declination is represented on a map by isogonic lines that wrap their way around the globe like warped strands of longitude, serpentine and flowing, tracing the geomagnetic properties of Earth’s core. The only places a compass can be said to be truly trustworthy are where the angle of declination is equal to zero, referred to as the agonic line. This special isogonic line winds about the earth, invisible and meandering, a meager band of accuracy in a world of wrongness. But compasses take deceit to the next level: if you take into consideration that in the realm of magnets, north poles are attracted to south poles and vice versa, compasses are actually pointing to a south pole. So, according to a compass, the North Pole is not a north pole at all. If you can’t trust a compass to do what it says it will do, how can you possibly trust its advice on which way to go? When human inventions fall short of truthfulness, we often revert back to the basics. Trees act as guideposts: it’s a well-known saying that moss grows on the north side of tree trunks. These bryophytes, as non-vascular plants, are disposed to the damp and shadowy conditions found on the north side, protected from the direct sunlight of the ON THE DECEPTION OF TRUE NORTH Emma Hurley
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