Earth's magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

Last week I was giving my girlfriend a ribbing about her cheap ball compass; it seemed to be reversed. We put it down to "you get what you pay for"; mthe compass was some free schwag from a tradeshow. She lives in Thousand Oaks CA.

Yesterday I was in the Pep Boys on Thousand Oaks Blvd, about a mile or so from the gf's place, and every single one of the compasses they had, cheap or not, was pointed almost completely backwards ("N" facing the front of the store, which actually faces south). I even went to ask one of the staff what directions I should give a friend who was driving to this location, and sure enough, he said "East" from Moorpark Road.... while the little floaty balls all showed "E" towards Moorpark. I tried moving them around the store, shaking them up, looking at different brands etc. and they all come up more or less backwards.

Any of you guys ever seen something like this? Or am I missing something about these compasses? I plan to bring my good quality camping compass (which uses a needle) with me next time I'm in T.O. and see if the weirdness persists.

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

Was there a strong electromagnetic field nearby? Those can interfere with a compass. Did you have any metal objects on you? Those will also often interfere with a compass. Try moving around and turning around and see if the compass points to a specific source, e.g. yourself. Try moving the compass farther away from your body and see if the arrow changes direction.

Sigbjoern

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

Ball compasses are designed so that when you look at it from the side, the direction you see is the direction you are looking. So that means the N will be on the south side of the ball, which means that you are looking north when you are looking at the N.

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

Nope not going here I see the bait I will not bite

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

You seem to be talking about car-based compasses. Some of those are indeed reversed on the dial to show the driver (user) the direction of travel.

If you looked at the compass from above, everything is reversed, but if you look at it sideways, it'll make sense. For example, if you see E on the dial, that means you're heading East.

Does that help?

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

greenLED, good job /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif
Topper /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

ever since they started putting 10oz speaker magnets in car speakers, i never know which way i am going /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
i got a calabratable ball, and i couldnt calibrate it, till a friend calibrated it while i drove in circles.
finally i gave up, and got a lectronic one for 12$ and it calibrates itself.
if you see sombody out in a half empty parking lot, doing 2 circles slowly, and looking like they dont know how to drive, thats me Calibrating it again /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

i thought this thread was going to be about the real offsets that are occuring in the earths magnetic fields that we use for determining north.
the "offset" to "true north" was changing slightly again.
enough to make news for cartographers. not sure how much that is.
so i thought it had gone belly up in thousand oaks, , , for a minute there anyways.

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

AHA, I see... it's not a bug, it's a feature. I stand re-edjumicated. I've always had needle compasses, so it never occurred to me.

Nope not going here I see the bait I will not bite

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif Pep Boys, balls.... nope, I don't see it, and I set it?

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

That's it! I live close to T.O, I've been wondering what strange force has been drawing money from my checking account. I thought it was CPF magnetism. It's all very clear now.
Sorry... had to do it.

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

[ QUOTE ]
VidPro said:
i thought this thread was going to be about the real offsets that are occuring in the earths magnetic fields that we use for determining north.
the "offset" to "true north" was changing slightly again.
enough to make news for cartographers. not sure how much that is.
so i thought it had gone belly up in thousand oaks, , , for a minute there anyways.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do know that there is evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is setting up for a reversal... for instance, there is the South Atlantic Anomaly, a kind of weak spot in the magnetic field... and the strength of the field has gone down 10% in the last 150 years or so.

South Atlantic Anomaly

... but that's probably going to be happening over millenia and all over the planet, not just Thousand Oaks for the weekend /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I didn't really expect something that dramatic to explain all the wayward compasses at Pep Boys, but couldn't figure it out myself (duh!).. either way, I'd expect folks on this board to be on top of it.

and they are /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: Earth\'s magnetic reversed in Thousand Oaks CA?

Good reason to own a GPS. After all, what else would we spend our money on ? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif