Figure 6-12Earth’s Magnetic Field (a) The magnetic field of a bar magnet is revealed by the alignment of iron filings on paper. (b) Although Earth does not contain a bar magnet, its rotation, combined with moving electric charges in its core, creates an equivalent field. Note that the field is not aligned with Earth’s rotation axis. By convention, the magnetic pole near Earth’s north rotation axis is called the north magnetic pole even though it is actually the south pole on a magnet! We will see similar misalignments and flipped magnetic fields when we study other planets. Note that this figure does not include the distortion of the field by the solar wind, which is depicted in Figure 6-13.