What causes the Earth to exert a magnetic force?
Many people know that the earth has a magnetic field, but few are aware that this field is shrinking. This decrease has been measured over a period of 150 years, and the rate of the decrease shows that something very earth-shaking took place less than 6000 years ago. The fossil record contains evidence of great disturbances in the field that give us an idea of the magnitude of the geologic events during Noah’s flood. This fact sheet answers some common questions on this subject, beginning with basic questions about magnetism and ending with some current theories about geomagnetism. What’s a magnet? Everyone knows what a magnet is, or what a magnet does. An invisible force (the magnetic field) attracts iron objects. This force can be very strong. A better question is “Why does a magnet attract iron objects?”. For this we must take a look at what a magnet is made of. If you take a bar magnet and break it in half, you end up with two smaller bar magnets. If you break the halves into fou
