Magnetic dip

Magnetic dip, dip angle, or magnetic inclination is the angle made with the horizontal by Earth's magnetic field lines. This angle varies at different points on Earth's surface. Positive values of inclination indicate that the magnetic field of Earth is pointing downward, into Earth, at the point of measurement, and negative values indicate that it is pointing upward. The dip angle is in principle the angle made by the needle of a vertically held compass, though in practice ordinary compass needles may be weighted against dip or may be unable to move freely in the correct plane. The value can be measured more reliably with a special instrument typically known as a dip circle.

Dip angle was discovered by the German engineer Georg Hartmann in 1544.^[1] A method of measuring it with a dip circle was described by Robert Norman in England in 1581.^[2]

^ Murray, Charles (2003). Human Accomplishment (First ed.). HarperCollins. p. 176. ISBN 9780060192471.
^ Norman, Robert (1581). The newe attractive: shewing the nature, propertie, and manifold vertues of the loadstone: with the declination of the needle, touched therewith under the plaine of the horizon.

[1] Murray, Charles (2003). Human Accomplishment (First ed.). HarperCollins. p. 176. ISBN 9780060192471.

[2] Norman, Robert (1581). The newe attractive: shewing the nature, propertie, and manifold vertues of the loadstone: with the declination of the needle, touched therewith under the plaine of the horizon.

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