Those are the same thing. The Earth is a planet sized (highly irregular) magnet, and compasses are very simple measuring devices for finding the alignment of th

Those are the same thing. The Earth is a planet sized (highly irregular) magnet, and compasses are very simple measuring devices for finding the alignment of the (local) magnetic field. Magnetic North is the "point" (it's not actually a point at all) on the surface of the planet where all magnetic field lines that you can trace by walking towards compass-incidated North converge. And those lines won't be even remotely straight =)