First of all I need to let you know that I'm not an Engineering student. I'm just dabbling with it in a hobbie capacity.

Question

I recently wrapped 11 layers of 30gauge magnetic wire around a ball, approximatly 2" in diameter. Leaving a lead and starting from the top(north) continously winding it untill I reached the bottom(south) and then back to the top again. I continued this pattern untill the eleven layers were completed ending up at the bottom. This was all done in a consistant clockwise direction. I then applied a 10volt dc current and found that the compass needle moved to the left(west) when the compass was in the upper half of the ball. The needle moved to the right(east) when the compass was in the lower half of the ball. The upper half followed the right rule but the lower half doesn't. After testing it several times for consistancy, I ended up gluing the entire essembly together and removing the interior rubber ball that I used to form the windings. I did this because, I felt that the rubber was in some way, perhaps through static, influencing the compass readings. I was pleased to see that it didn't make a difference but I'm still confused that this doesn't follow the right hand rule for the bottom half of the sphere. What really intrigued me was when I flipped the essembly over and viewed it from the bottom(south) following the wire around, the wire actually winds around in a counter clock-wise direction. So is the compasses deflection correct, accoding to the right hand rule. The field direction changes when it passes the equatoral region(half way point)??? So, just to see if I was doing this correctly, I wound the same amount of wire around a cylindercal pvc pipe, glued the windings together as before, removed the pvc pipe, applied 10volts dc, moved the compass to the top half and the bottom half and found that if follows the right hand rule, there was no deflection that doesn't follow the right hand rule. I don't get it.

Does anyone have an explanation or links were I can read up on this? This can't be new. I'm not able to find any web referances, perhaps I'm not searching with the correct terminology. Can you tell me what terms to search with or explain what is going on?

Thanks

I am not exactly certain of your orientation readings, but it sounds to me that the magnetic deflection is exactly what is expected: Deviation in the upper hemisphere is opposite that in the lower hemisphere. 
A note: it matters not how you wound the coil, clockwise, or counterclockwise: what matters is the direction of current. The right hand rules involved here are straightforward.

Thanks

It may be me or it's the way I'm explaining things. The way I see my readings is that there's definetly a conflict. My orientation readings are made by having my wire sphere sationary and moving only the instument that interperates the flux field direction of influence, namely the compass. As the compass is moved from the upper hemisphere to the lower half, the coppass needle is deflected, from an Eastern orientation, to a Western orientation. I found this ratther courious, since I tested it duplicating the process on a cylindrical shaped and there is no deflection by the needle when the compass is moved from the upper end of the cylinder to the lower end of the cylinder. My question is now. How does shape (disk/soleniod/toriod/cylindercal/sphere) influence magnetic flux field orientation.

The winding you have will produce a N pole on one end, and a S pole on the other. Naturally, a magnet will be deflected in opposite directions on the top and the bottom.