Christopher Silburn, age 15, of Victoria, B.C., Canada, for his question:

Is there a North Magnetic Pole for eastern countries?

The North Magnetic Pole is about 1,000 miles south of the North Geographic Pole. It lies well within the Arctic Circle at the southwestern tip of Bathhurst Island. The Eastern and Western Hemispheres, of course, are divided by a man made meridian that runs through Greenwich, England. The opposite boundary is near the Date Line that runs up and down the mid Pacific. The Western and Eastern halves each have 180 geographical degrees of longitude. The North Magnetic Pole lies within the Western Hemisphere, some 100 degrees of longitude west of the Greenwich dividing line.

The North Magnetic Pole pulls the magnet of a compass to point in the North direction.

It is strong enough to point all the compasses in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

This is fine, because the earth has only one North and one South Magnetic Pole. The system works all over the world, north and south, east and west. Eastern countries do not have a magnetic pole in their section and they do not need one.