The compass, one of the four major inventions, is known to Chinese

A compass is a simple instrument used to determine directions. Formerly known as Sinan. Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty made a clear record of the shape and usage of Sinan in his book "On Balance".

Sinan is composed of a bronze plate and a magnetic spoon made of natural magnets, the bronze plate is engraved with 24 directions, and the magnetic spoon is placed on the circular surface in the center of the plate, and when it is stationary, the tail of the spoon points to the south. In the Song Dynasty, the working people mastered the technology of making artificial magnets, and made guide fish. The guide fish is cut into a thin steel sheet into the shape of a fish, two inches long and five minutes wide, and the belly of the fish is partially concave, so that the fish can float on the water like a boat.

Then put the fish and the natural magnet together, and the steel sheet is also magnetic due to the magnet attraction. The guide fish made by this artificial magnetic transfer method is much more convenient than using Sinan, as long as there is a bowl of water, the guide fish can be placed on the water surface to identify the direction. After a long period of improvement, people rubbed the steel needle on the natural magnet, and the steel needle also became magnetic.

This artificially magnetized steel needle can be said to be a formal compass. Shen Kuo mentioned in his "Dream Creek Writings" that he had done four experiments on the use of the compass, namely the water floatation method, the wisp suspension method, the nail method, and the bowl lip method. "Water floating" is to place a compass in a bowl with water and make it float on the surface of the water, indicating the direction.

The "wisp suspension method" is to coat some wax in the middle of the magnetic needle, stick a silk thread on it, hang the silk thread on the wooden frame, and place a disc marked with direction under the needle, and the steel needle will indicate the north and south when it is stationary. The "nail method" is to put the steel needle on the surface of the fingernail, gently rotate, due to the smoothness of the fingernail, the magnetic needle can also have the same guiding effect as Sinan. The "bowl lip method" is to place the magnetic needle on the smooth edge of the bowl, and turn the magnetic ash, which will have the same guiding effect as the nail method.

After precise observation and experiments, Shen Kuo also found that the direction indicated by the magnetic needle was not due south and north, but slightly northwest and southeast, which is called magnetic declination in science. And the compass can also give others a good way to discern directions. But the name was inherited by Sinan as "guide".

The original appearance of the compass was very simple, that is, similar to the common scriptures to put a spoon on a plate, one end of the guide, the other end of the north, called Sinan. After that, it slowly developed into a compass, and then evolved into the current compass. In fact, whether it is called a compass or a compass, it is just a name.

There are many people who have never been to school who don't know, and some of them don't know specifically.

A compass is a simple instrument used to determine directions. Also known as the compass.

The compass is a simple instrument used to determine the direction. Formerly known as Sinan. The main component is a magnetic needle mounted on a shaft that can be rotated freely.

The magnetic needle can remain in the tangent direction of the magnetic meridian under the action of the geomagnetic field. The north pole of the magnetic needle points to the north pole of geography, and the direction can be discerned using this performance.

The compass is the result of the understanding of magnetism by the ancient Chinese working people in long-term practice. As one of the four great inventions of ancient China, its invention has played an immeasurable role in the development of human science and technology and civilization. In ancient China, the compass was first used for rituals, ceremonies, military affairs, divination and feng shui to determine directions.

Extended Materials. The inventor is the crystallization of the ancient working people, the inventor has no way to study, but can find clues from a large number of historical documents, the Warring States Period, there are guide tools, Sinan, the Spring and Autumn Period, people can make nephrite and jadeite into Sinan, the Eastern Han Dynasty Wang Chong's works are also recorded, "Mengxi Pen Talk" Shen Kuo's supplementary pen talk talked about various phenomena produced when the friction method is magnetized.

The ancient Chinese working people first discovered the attraction relationship between magnets and magnets, and invented the compass according to the directivity of magnets.

The working people of ancient China first came into contact with magnetite, and in the contact with magnets, they discovered the properties that magnets can guide, but the scientific theories at that time were not enough to explain the principle of this matter.

In the middle of the 11th century, the great Chinese scientist Shen Kuo was still surprised that the compass could be a guide, he wrote his "Mengxi Writings" to introduce the artificial magnetization method of the compass, as well as the production method of the compass, but why the compass can be guided, he did not have any reason to explain, in the book sighed: "The guide of the magnet ......Don't be excused! In the Song Dynasty, people used the doctrine of yin and yang and the five elements to explain the principle of the compass, believing that "what the compass refers to is where the yang energy is."

Although it is not easy to explain, it does not affect everyone's use, as early as the Warring States Period, people used the characteristics of the magnet to indicate the north and south to make a guide tool Sinan, and it was used until the eighth century. Later, there was a magnetic spoon, and after a long time, it was slowly improved, and more convenient magnetic needles and compasses appeared in the Tang Dynasty. Feng Shui said that "the earth is in the right position in the eight directions, and the road and the map are fixed, so the meridian is the territory, and the interior is in response to the reality of the place."

It refers to the compass.

The invention of the compass has played a great role in the development of China's navigation industry.

Compass. Gunpowder, papermaking.

Printing is one of the four major inventions of our country.

Why is the compass one of the four great inventions, the compass has given the way to people who sailed the oceans, and for the first time mankind has gained the freedom of navigation on the sea. The invention of the compass reduced many unnecessary routes in ocean voyages and accelerated the speed of navigation. With the compass, it was convenient for people to open up many new routes, which accelerated the development of the marine industry.

We know that when traveling in the field, fighting, or navigating the oceans, the compass is crucial to find the right direction. If you are unable to distinguish between east, west, north and south, you will lose your way and will not be able to reach your destination, or you will be delayed by military aircraft or thrown into an ambush set up by the enemy.

Since it is so important to identify directions, people have long summarized some methods to identify directions in the wild, such as using terrain features, sunlight, tree rings, etc. But if it's a rainy day, or when you're in an unfamiliar place, or when there's no terrain around you to discern your direction, or if you're in a sea of water and sky, how do you find the direction? So people came up with the idea of creating some kind of tool for identifying directions.

During the Warring States period, people already knew about magnets.

It can indicate the north-south direction, and a guide tool made of natural magnets - Sinan. According to the documents and archaeological objects, Sinan has been successfully copied as it is, it is a spoon-shaped object made of natural magnets, placed on a square plate marked with directions, turning the magnetic spoon, when the magnetic spoon slowly stops, the spoon handle will point to the south. This is the compass of the earliest times.

But Sinan's production is very difficult, because it uses natural magnets. Later, artificial magnets were made. The cost and energy are less than that of natural magnets.

The significance of the compass is also significant. The compass is the Sinan of ancient China, and when the Chinese working people were mining and smelting, they discovered a stone that can attract iron, and this kind of stone is a magnet. A compass is a simple tool used to determine direction.

The main component is a magnetic needle mounted on a shaft that can be rotated freely. The north pole of the compass points to the south pole, which makes it accurate to discern the direction. It is commonly used in navigation, geodesy, tourism, and the military.

A compass can be used to find directions.

That's why the compass is one of the four great inventions.

To put it simply, the greatness of the invention depends mainly on its influence on history, and the compass was used for navigation, which contributed to the feat of Zheng He's seven voyages to the West in China, and the compass was introduced to the West and became one of the important reasons for the opening of new shipping routes. In fact, all four major inventions have made great contributions to the development of Western capitalism, and they are definitely not a patchwork.

The ancestor of the compass appeared around the Sengoku period. It is made with natural magnets. It looks like a soup spoon with a round bottom, can be placed on a smooth "turf" and is balanced, and can be rotated freely.

When it is stationary, the handle of the spoon points south. The ancients called it "Sinan", and there was it in the book "Han Feizi" at that time: "The first king established Sinan to end the day and night."

"Duan Chaoxi" is the meaning of the square and the direction. The application of Sinan is recorded in "Guiguzi", and Zheng Guoren brought Sinan with him when he picked jade to ensure that he did not lose his way. However, the specific inventor is also uncertain.

The compass was used for navigation, which contributed to the feat of Zheng He's seven voyages to the West in China, and the compass was introduced to the West and became an important reason for the opening of new shipping routes.

Because the invention of the compass has played an immeasurable role in the development of human science and technology and civilization. In ancient China, the compass was used in rituals, ceremonies, military affairs, divination, and feng shui to determine directions, and later in navigation.

The compass gave direction to those who sailed the oceans, giving mankind the freedom to sail on the sea for the first time.

The Four Great Inventions of China refer to the four inventions of ancient China, which generally refer to papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and movable type printing.

This theory was first put forward by the British sinologist Joseph Needham and later inherited by many Chinese historians, and it is generally believed that these four inventions have played a great role in promoting the political, economic and cultural development of ancient China, and these inventions have been transmitted to the West through various channels, and have also had a great impact on the history of the development of world civilization.

Although many important achievements of Chinese civilization are named after the "Four Greats" and "Five Greats", such as the Four Silver Reforms to the Great Beauty, the Four Halls Hu Classics, and the Four Books and Five Classics, the concept of the Four Great Inventions was ** by Western scholars and later accepted by the Chinese. As early as 1550, the Italian mathematician Jerome Cardin was the first to point out that China's "three major inventions" had an impact on the world: Sinan (the compass), printing and gunpowder.

And considered them "an invention that has no rival in the whole of antiquity."

The compass is one of the four great inventions of our country. Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty said in the "On Balance" that "the ladle of Sinan, cast it on the ground, and its guide to it", which is a relatively clear description of Sinan in the early days. Archaeologists have restored Sinan according to the description of ancient documents, but whether this is the prototype of the compass is still very controversial in the academic community.

But what is not controversial is that in the Yuan Dynasty, the compass had already begun to be used in human activities such as navigation. The basic principle of the compass is a small magnetic needle that can rotate freely, under the action of the geomagnetic field, the small magnetic needle guides at one end and points north at the other end. One end of the guide is called the South Pole (S pole) and the North end is called the North Pole (N Pole).

Usually we paint the north end red, so some people call the compass the compass.

Why can a compass guide the north? This is because the earth has a magnetic field.

Magnetic field. We know that magnets have two poles, N pole and S pole, and the poles of the same name repel each other, and the poles of the same name attract each other.

That is, if we use the n pole of one magnet to get close to the s pole of another magnet, we will find that the two are attracted to each other. If you use the n pole of one magnet close to the n pole of another magnet, you will find that the two are mutually exclusive.

In order to understand this interaction between magnets, the concept of magnetic fields was introduced. A magnetic field is an invisible and intangible substance that exists around a magnet, and the action of this substance is a powerful force on the magnet. That is to say:

One magnet creates a magnetic field in the surrounding space, and this magnetic field has a strong effect on the other magnet. If you place a bunch of small magnetic needles around the magnet and several clusters, then the n pole of the small magnetic needle (red in the figure below) will point in the same direction as the magnetic field. That is to say:

Outside the magnet, the magnetic field is directed from the n pole of the magnet to the s pole of the magnet.

People deduce that the earth has a magnetic field based on the fact that the compass can guide north on the earth's surface, which is called the geomagnetic field. The magnetic field of the earth is very similar to that of a bar magnet. According to the characteristics of the small magnetic needle n pole pointing northward, people analyze that the direction of the geomagnetic field is from south to north, which concludes that the n pole of the geomagnetic field is extremely near the geographic south pole, and the s pole of the geomagnetic field is near the geographic north pole, and the geomagnetic north and south poles are opposite to the geographic north and south poles.

Moreover, the geomagnetic north and south poles and the geographical north and south poles are not completely overlapping, but there is an angle, called the geomagnetic declination, the Chinese scientist Shen Kuo wrote in the "Mengxi Writings": "The Fang family uses magnets to grind the, then it can guide, but it is often slightly eastward, not all south." "It is the world's earliest record of magnetic declination.

Modern compasses have corrected this declination by technical means.

It is generally affected by the geomagnetic field, and then the pointer will be a guide, and a point to the north, and it will also be affected by the south pole and the north pole.

The compass compass is based on the magnetic force of the magnetic field, one section to the south and one section to the north.

The principle of the compass is to use the earth's natural magnetic field to classify the magnetic field, which is divided into two directions: the n pole and the s pole.