north and south
A magnet is an object that attracts certain materials such as iron. Youre probably familiar with common bar magnets, like the one shown in the Figure below . Like all magnets, this bar magnet has north and south magnetic poles . The red end of the magnet is the north pole and the blue end is the south pole. The poles are regions where the magnet is strongest. The poles are called north and south because they always line up with Earths north-south axis if the magnet is allowed to move freely. Earths axis is the imaginary line around which the planet rotates. .