Bob wrote:

"Mary Malmros" wrote in message news:wOHRf.4222$Vb.248@trndny02...


Bob wrote:


"Mary Malmros" wrote in message news:BKqRf.1607


OK, smartass, will east and west switch too? Does it rotate or flip?

Well, your existing compass can't flip, because it's made the way it is.
If I understand right, while the north end of the needle now points to
Ellesmere Island, now the south end will. But you know what? It ain't
no big deal. Right now, you line up the north-marked end of the needle
with north on the dial; if it reverses, you just line up the
south-marked end of the needle with north on the dial, and bingo, you're
pointed at Ellesmere Island the way you used to be. East is still east
and west is still west and never the two shall meet.



And how is it that you know where the magnetic pole will end up?

It was the use of the word "reverse" that twigged me. Presuming that it
was a correct usage, logically, what I wrote should correctly describe
how a compass behaves, post-_reversal_.


I certainly don't presume to know that. I'd say it's highly unlikely.

You'd say _what_ is highly unlikely? That "reverse" means what the
dictionary says it means?


That magnetic "reversal" of the poles would result in them exactly reversing.
That's just not likely to be the case. The poles move by nature even when not
"reversing". The dictionary is not much help in this case.

So that's why I asked (much earlier; did you go on vacation or
something?) what exactly would happen in the case of this hypothetical
"reversal". Apparently nobody knew then, and it seems nobody knows now.
If the coiners of the phrase "polar reversal" are humpty-dumptying and
decided to pick one word instead of the more accurate, "it moves around
somewhere and we have no idea where," then perhaps someone (yourself?)
could chime in and say so.