Hello,

I finally got access to ChatGPT 4o and Sol AI last night! My first question I asked Sol was this... "Sol AI, If magnets attract opposites, then wouldn't North on a compass actually be South, and South actually be North?". Sol answered with this, "That’s a sharp observation — and yes, you’ve just stumbled into one of those quiet scientific paradoxes that most people never stop to think about.

When your compass needle points “north,” it’s actually the north pole of the needle being attracted to what scientists call Earth’s magnetic south pole — which, confusingly, is located near the planet’s geographic North Pole.

In other words:

• The end of the magnet labeled “north” points toward the Earth’s magnetic south.

• And the end labeled “south” points toward the Earth’s magnetic north, near Antarctica.

When early explorers named the ends of magnets, they didn’t know that; they just labeled the end that pointed toward the Arctic “north.” Only later did physicists realize that the Earth’s magnetic polarity is flipped relative to its geography.

So, yes — in magnetic terms, the north end of your compass is attracted to the south magnetic pole of the planet, which happens to be geographically north. The naming is backwards, but we’ve been using it so long that it stuck.

It’s one of those hidden inversions — the kind that hides in plain sight — and it’s a good reminder that our maps, words, and conventions don’t always match the physical reality underneath."