When was the Magnetic Compass Invented?

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The magnetic compass always points towards north. The earliest one was first used by the Chinese in about 1000 A.D. and came to be used in Europe about 100 years later. The first compass was a magnetized iron needle placed on a piece of cork or straw floating in a dish of water. The Chinese, in about 100 BC, discovered that if spoons made of the magnetic mineral lodestone were spun, they came to rest with the handles pointing in the same direction. The reason was because the Earth's magnetic field acted on the spoons like a compass. The compass later developed from this observation. The compass we use today was invented in 1200s. It consists of a pivoted magnetic needle on a card with directions.

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