The New England Pirate Museum
Make Your Own Compass
You will need a magnet, a cork, a nail, a shallow dish approximately eight or nine inches in diameter, a twelve inch square piece of oaktag, and a ballpoint pen or indelible marker.
- Mark the four points of the compass along the edges of the oaktag
square. Include NE, SE, NW, and SW if you choose.
- Magnetize the nail by rubbling it, in one direction only, with one
pole of the magnet.
- Press nail through the length of the cork until the cork is centered
on the nail.
- Fill the dish with water and place it in the center of the oaktag square.
- Place cork in the shallow dish of water.
- Line up the north mark on the oaktag square with the pointed end of
the nail.
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