Magnetic braking of magnets sliding along a sloped aluminum surface

[mscoffman]

This is why a compass needle (or a needle on a cork floating in water) isn't forced to move northward,  it just rotates to align with the local field lines.
The earth's field is uniform over small scales in the lab, so magnets and iron don't migrate.

I think.

When you take two magnets you get a stronger magnetic force
response then when you take a magnet and an object made of
steel or iron.

A magnet will have a pole to pole distance very small relative
to the earths magnetic pole to pole distance, so a compass
magnet is going to primarily experience a twisting motion, the
friction of which can be made very low (Think; Cavendish
experiment.) The "delta" magnetic force (stronger on one end
then the other) is going to be very small. If the compass magnet
could somehow "float in space" and not experience terrestrial friction
I think it would slowly accelerate towards the stronger magnetic pole.
Iron would accelerate even more slowly. The environment has energy
flows that can interfere with this migration process, even if friction
was eliminated. Ions and free electrons definitely feel the earths
magnetic force but since they are electrically charged they primarily
spiral. Satelites have been designed that use magnetic reaction control
systems to allign themselves using earth's magnetic field, electrically.

:S:MarkSCoffman

[e2matrix]

Not an expert here by a long way but I don't see much mention here of the Lenz's law.  And from what I found recently I don't see anything here regarding the braking of magnets sliding on aluminum that is not explained by Lenz's law.  At least recently when I dropped a large heavy neo magnet down a copper pipe and also down an aluminum pipe I was astounded to see it float slowly down both pipes.  I then tried sliding it down an inclined sheet of copper and a sheet of aluminum and in both cases it slid slowly.  All Lenz's law from what was explained to me.  However I don't quite understand a free falling magnet always flipping over to one pole.  I just tried that and see (here in Northern hemisphere at least) that the North pole of the magnet always wants to flip down.  Does the South pole flip down in the Southern hemisphere?  I thought the lines of magnetic forces would be parallel to the surface of the planet rather than in the center of it or below the surface.  Something is not adding up in what I have observed. 
   Please excuse me if I have missed something here as I didn't read the entire thread but the first page and the last couple pages seem to be drawing some conclusions that don't quite sound correct to me.  At least I don't see what the Earth's magnetic field has to do with magnetic braking of a neo magnet sliding down a sheet of aluminum.  In trying that I found no difference with North or South down when sliding.  Even almost vertical it didn't flip.  I haven't watched the video's yet so I'm just jumping in on some of this without having all the info.  But again from what I've skimmed some things I'm reading don't make sense.