A freely suspended magnet always aligns in
N-S direction
A freely suspended magnet always points in the North - South direction even in the absence of any other magnet. This suggests that the Earth itself behaves as a magnet which causes a freely suspended magnet (or magnetic needle) to point always in a particular direction. The shape of the Earth's magnetic field resembles that of a bar magnet of length one-fifth of the Earth's diameter buried at its centre.