Earth's magnetic field is overdue a flip that would completely swap north and south around

We might take the laws of physics for granted, but in reality it's unbelievably complex.

Gravity might be one thing, but there are all sorts of natural laws that aren't quite as fixed and immovable as you might assume - and our magnetic poles are a perfect example of this.

Kids in schools are taught about the massive magnetic field around our planet, called the magnetosphere, with any bar magnet eventually aligning itself by the north-south line thanks to this field.

However, it turns out that this magnetosphere actually isn't fixed forever - scientists have established that every so often, the poles flip.

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By "every so often" we mean every 300,000 years or so (according to NASA), so this is truly a rare event, and it happens as the poles get weaker and weaker over time. When they collapse, the polarity flips and things carry on.

Where things get interesting, though, is when you take a look into when the most recent pole flip was. Research indicates this happened around 780,000 years ago, which means that the next flip is way, way overdue at this point.

Amazingly, in that time we've even had a mini pole-flip, one that didn't last as long as expected. Around 41,000 years ago, geological records indicate that the poles flipped, but only stayed that way for 250 years before flipping back.

Even better, we don't know why, fuelling speculation and further research into what was going on.

Returning to the present day, though, scientists say we don't have to worry about the poles flipping any day now.

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However, the process will happen eventually, and it could be a really tumultuous time - while you might imagine that the poles flipping is just like a click of the fingers, an instantaneous moment, it's actually way more gradual than this.

It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for the poles to complete their change, and it's that in-between period that'll be interesting.

After all, if a compass currently points north, and will point south when the reversal is complete, the in-between time could be a bit of a challenge for both navigation and any number of modern bits of technology with magnetic components.

Many of these will work as normal, but there could be some unpredictable disruption. Similarly, the flipping of the poles also weakens the magnetosphere while it's taking place, which could mean the planet is more susceptible to solar storms. That might make for some very pretty aurora sightings, but could also mean radio disruption, too.