magnetic needle

Example Sentences

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Finding the magnetoreceptors responsible for triggering these neurons has been like looking for a magnetic needle in a haystack.

From Science Magazine • Jun. 23, 2016

Last week Bendix Aviation Corp. announced a new automatic compass that makes the old magnetic needle* look as obsolete as a warrior's spear.

From Time Magazine Archive

He said: "Nothing must deflect the magnetic needle."

From Time Magazine Archive

Circumferent′or, an instrument used by surveyors and miners for measuring horizontal angles, consisting of a graduated circle, an index, and a magnetic needle suspended over the centre of a circle—now superseded by the Theodolite.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

Alternating Current Galvanometers.—For the detection of small alternating currents a magnetic needle or movable coil galvanometer is of no utility.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various