Richard Ridolfo, age: 13, of Albany, New York, for his question:

Where is the North Magnetic Pole?

The north and south poles are the two ends of the earth’s axis, the line through the center around which it revolves. From these points we have charted the stars, taken our directions and plotted out the lines of latitude and longitude. But the earth is also a great magnet and therefore has a north and south magnetic pole. You night expect the magnetic poles to correspond with the axis poles. But they do not.

Pilots and sailors know when they are in the region of the magnetic poles. The magnetic compass can no longer point out the direction. The north magnetic pole is an oval area far south of the; north pole. It is around the Bothia Peninsula of Northern Canada near Latitude 71 degrees North and Longitude 96 degrees West, just inside the Arctic Circle.

The south magnetic is on the cold, unexplored continent of Antarctica. Its location is given as Latitude 73 degrees South at Longitude 156 degrees East ‑ and is, of course, north of the south pole.