The Earth’s Decaying Magnetic Field If you go hiking or camping,
you might take along a compass to make sure that you do not get
lost. When you look at the compass, you see that the arrow of
the compass always points to the north; it never points to the
south or west (unless your compass is broken). Have you ever
wondered why compasses point north? The answer has to do with
the Earth’s magnetic field. In the core of the Earth, a huge
electric current is produced that causes the Earth to produce a
magnetic attraction. That magnetic attraction is what causes the
arrow on your compass to point North. What does this have to do
with the Earth’s age? Scientists who have been studying the
Earth’s magnetic forces have discovered that they are getting
weaker and weaker every year. One government report stated that
the magnetic field will be gone by the year A.D. 3991. If we
look at how fast the magnetic field is decaying today, and try
to calculate how long it has been decaying, we learn something
very interesting. If