Explain, why a freely suspended magnet always points in the north-south direction.

Explanation

The Earth itself behaves like a huge magnet. The shape of the earth.s magnetic field resembles that of an imaginary bar magnet. The South pole of this bar magnet is near the geographical North pole, whereas the North pole of the bar magnet is near the geographical South pole. In a freely suspended magnet, therefore, the north pole points towards the geographical North pole since it is attracted by the earth.s magnetic South pole. Similarly, the south pole of the suspended magnet is attrtacted by the earth.s magnetic North pole, and therefore, points towards the geographical South pole.