Dip Needle/Oersted’s Apparatus - SE-8619

This dual-purpose apparatus can be used as a dip needle or Oersted’s apparatus.

• Find the dip angle of the Earth’s magnetic field at your location by aligning the horizontal compass needle with the Earth’s magnetic field and then rotate it to the vertical to show the angle to which the Earth’s magnetic field points into or out of the horizontal plane.
• Demonstrate that a current loop produces a magnetic field. With the compass needle aligned with the Earth’s field in the horizontal plane, connect a DC power supply to the banana jack terminals on the apparatus to run a current through the conducting aluminum loop that forms the frame that holds the compass needle. The compass needle will deflect in response to the magnetic field created by the current loop.