If used properly, when is a compass not a compass?

 Well, let's just think about that a bit.

On Earth, compass needles are, by design, destined to point to the North.  They just love pointing to the North (actually, they don't really have much choice).

But - when a compass is as far North as it can get on earth - say, directly over the magnetic north pole - it can no longer "find" which way is North. Why?  Because there's no longer a northern direction! Nada. Fini. That's it.

You see, if you are directly over the north pole, the only direction - in any direction - is South - and that means all compass points are to the South. But didn't we just say a compass needle has to point to the North? Exactly!.

So the best the a compass needle can do when it's directly over the earths' magnetic north pole, is spin around in a circle - like it's actually looking for North - just like this

Which means, a compass is not a compass when it's directly over the earths' magnetic north pole because it cannot point to North.  Brrrrrrr! Pretty cool, huh?

 Trivia Challenge #1