Who invented the magnetic compass, and how?
The Rock That Knew
Who invented the magnetic compass, and how?
You're hiking in thick woods, no sun, no stars — which way is north? Today you'd pull out your phone. But a thousand years ago, someone in China looked at a strange rock and had the kind of idea that changes everything.
The rock was lodestone, a type of iron ore that had been struck by lightning. Ancient Chinese fortune-tellers noticed something wild: when they floated a sliver of lodestone in water, it always swung to point the same direction. Always. Like the rock knew something they didn't.
