Question

Describe with the help of an experiment that a freely suspended magnet comes to rest in the north-south direction.

Answer 1

Let's take a bar magnet and suspend it freely by tying it's middle to a thread that is fixed at one end. The bar magnet is now free to move along a horizontal plane about the vertical axis. After some time, we will observe that the magnet comes to rest in the north-south direction. Now, if we disturb the magnet from this position, we will observe the magnet returning back to the same position, i.e. facing the north-south direction. This shows that a freely suspended magnet comes to rest in the north-south direction.