Video narration
Why does a compass needle turn when nothing is touching it? The needle has a cause. It is responding to something around it-something you cannot see, but whose effect you can observe. Bring a magnet near the compass, without touching it, and the needle changes direction. So the magnet is not simply pulling an object by contact. Its influence reaches through the space around it. That invisible region of influence is called a magnetic field. A magnetic field explains why magnets can attract or repel from a distance, and why a compass needle turns to line up with the field around it. The same idea applies on a larger scale: Earth itself has a magnetic field. Your compass needle responds to that field and settles along its direction. So why does the needle turn? Because Earth's magnetic field acts through space, and the needle aligns with it.