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This is a report by Mrs. Margherita Basso, High School teacher in Treviso, Italy, who answered prof. FRERE’s call to measure the horizontal component of the Earth magnetic field.

At the end of 2017 Mr Enrico Belli suggested me to take part to the project “Measurement of the Earth magnetic field” proposed by Mr Frére, professor at ULB of Bruxelles.

My pupils of the fourth year at the Leonardo Da Vinci Scientific High School in Treviso, Italy, welcomed the challenge following Mr Frère’s announcement. The description of the experimental plant is very clear.
The procedure was to observe the deviation of a magnetic needle, at the beginning oriented only by the Earth magnetic field, caused by the magnetic field of a solenoid run across an electric current. Indeed a physical law states that, if a solenoid is connected to an electricity generator, it generates, inside itself, a magnetic field parallel to the same axis and directly proportional to the intensity of the current.
The pupils repeated the measures both in the Laboratory in our school in Treviso, Italy, and in New Jersey, USA, during their cultural exchange trip at the Pascack Valley High School, Hillsdale, NJ.
The results, both in Treviso and in Hillsdale, were quite good, with deep gratification of the students, and mine too.

Mrs. Margherita Basso, teacher at the Da Vinci High School in Treviso, Italy

The Da Vinci High School students making Prof. FRERE’s experiment at the Pascack Valley High School, Hillsdale, NJ, USA