Magnetism

While Noah was waiting for the water to recede (which took a year), he had a lot of time to think about sea travel. One day, he prayed, "Oh lord, beside masturbating to help pass the time, I have been thinking of ways for my children's children to travel across oceans of water. I've been trying to think of ways for them to navigate but can't seem to come up with anyway."Then the lord responded, "You have a point there, old man. Very well, I will create the force of electromagnetism to help your children's children nagigate across the seas. Furthermore, I will not give Venus an E&M field to confuse the hell out of future scientists."Noah thought for a second, looked up and said, "What the who what now?"And that is how electromagnetism was created. Amen.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the Chinese magicians were able to use the magnetic force long before the greeks.It's sad to think that even though the earth's magnetic field was discovered by various civilizations throughout the ages, noone actually bothered to put it to good use until the renaissance.

You don't need a magnet to discover the earth's magnetic field.