During the 2nd World War the British Navy lost many ships to German mines that w

Question

During the 2nd World War the British Navy lost many ships to German mines that were triggered by a magnetic needle sensitive to sudden changes of the Earth's magnetic field. Those changes were caused by the ships own magnetic fields due to the magnetic nature of their hulls. The ships functioned as huge magnets whose North poles pointed downwards in the Northern Atlantic. A Canadian engineer who took Electromagnetics seriously in college found the way to neutralize the German artifacts. What you had done, if you were in his boots? Would your solution work in the Southern Atlantic?

Explanation / Answer

Magnetic needle sensitive to Earth's magnetic field, so when there is change in magnetic field strength due to ship field needle get trigered. So solution of this is to neutralize the ships magnetic field and this can be done by two methods as

1. Neutralize the ships magnetic field by another field in upward direction this will work in north Atlantic but won't work in southern Atlantic, there direction of ship magnetic field will be in upward direction so to neutralize this field downward magnetic field should be used.

2. In this solution ship may be made of non magnetic materials as copper, silver etc, ship will not induce magnetic field and it won't effect earth magnetic field, this solution will work for both northern and southern Atlantic.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse D
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.