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magnetic declination

British  

noun

  1. Also called: declination.   magnetic variation.  the angle that a compass needle makes with the direction of the geographical north pole at any given point on the earth's surface

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

magnetic declination Scientific  
  1. The horizontal angle between the true geographic North Pole and the magnetic north pole, as figured from a specific point on the Earth.

  2. Compare magnetic inclination


Example Sentences

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A time-shot was successful, and observations were also taken for magnetic declination.

From The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 by Sir Douglas Mawson

Now, here is what we know with most certainty as to the magnetic declination of Paris at the epoch in question: Years.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891 by Various

If there is a true meridian on the map, but not a magnetic meridian, one may be constructed as follows, if the magnetic declination is known: Fig.

From Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss

With us the magnetic declination is a minimum at about eight o’clock in the morning, and is greatest at two o’clock in the afternoon.

From The Philosophy of the Weather And a Guide to Its Changes by Thomas Belden Butler

In 1851 Lament, a Scotchman at Munich, found a decennial period in the daily range of magnetic declination.

From History of Astronomy by George Forbes

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