History of geomagnetism
Early ideas about the source
In early attempts to understand the Earth's magnetic field, measuring it was only part of the challenge. Understanding the measurements was also difficult because the mathematical and physical concepts had not yet been developed – in particular, the concept of a vector field that associates a vector with each point in space. The Earth's field is generally represented by field lines that run from pole to pole; the field at any point is parallel to a field line but does not have to point at either pole. As late as the eighteenth century, however, a natural philosopher would believe that a magnet had to be pointing directly at something. Thus, the Earth's magnetic field had to be explained by localized sources, and as more was learned about the Earth's field, these sources became increasingly complex.
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