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A tale of three norths

Learn about the three different types of north, where they come from, and how to use them to navigate.
Plan a session with this activity

You will need

  • Compass
  • Permanent markers
  • Oranges (or any fruit that’s easy to peel)
  • Mobile phones or metal objects

Before you begin

  • Make sure you let everyone know what they’ll need in advance so they can join the session ready to go. 
  • Make sure everyone understands how to use a compass.

A tale of three norths

  1. The person leading the activity should welcome everyone to the meeting and mute them. 
  2. Everyone should look at a compass. A compass uses a small magnetic needle, floating in a protective case. It points north as it lines up with the magnetic fields of the earth.
  1. Everyone should look at a map and discuss what we mean by ‘north’. What is it and where is it? How is it shown on the map?
  1. The person leading the activity should explain that there are three different ‘norths’:
    • True north is right at the top of the planet, at the geographic North Pole. The earth spins around this point so it never changes position. This north isn’t useful for navigating as we can’t find it with a compass.
    • Magnetic north is the direction that a compass will point to. It’s slightly different from true north as the molten metals inside the Earth are constantly moving around, changing where magnetic north is.
    • Grid north is the direction that the grid lines on a map point to. Magnetic north is used together with grid north for navigating.

Testing grid north

  1. Everyone should take an orange and a marker pen.
  2. Starting at the top of the orange, everyone should draw a straight line from the top of the orange to the bottom, as if drawing along the edge of an orange segment.
  3. Moving one centimetre to the right of the first line, draw another line from top to bottom.
  4. Continue working all the way around the orange, drawing straight lines from top to bottom until the orange is separated into roughly 10 segments.
  5. Draw a small ring near the top of the orange, crossing through all your straight lines.
  6. Move around half a centimetre further down from the top of the orange and draw another ring.
  7. Continue drawing rings until you reach the bottom of the orange. The whole orange should now be split into lots of different sized squares.
  1. Peel the orange as carefully as possible, trying to keep it in one piece.
  2. Now try to lay the orange peel flat. The orange peel will have to tear and deform to be able to lay flat.
  1. Everyone should look at a map to find where the adjustment for grid north and magnetic north are.

Magnetic deviation

  1. Everyone should look at a compass. What happens to the needle when it’s near a mobile phone or a metal object?
  1. Everyone should think about an occasion where this could be a problem. It’s a real issue when using a compass inside an aircraft, which is full of metal and electronic instruments.
  1. Everyone should discuss how magnetic deviation applies to air navigation.


This activity was about developing skills. Knowing how to find a location using a map and compass is a great skill to have. It can help people find their way on an adventure and help them to be found if you ever need rescuing. Ask everyone to describe the three norths and say how or where they’d find each of them. Why are there three norths instead of just one?

This activity was also about solving problems, like how to make flat maps of a spherical planet. How did using the orange demonstrate the issue of transferring grid lines from a curved surface to a flat one? How do map makers get around these issues?

