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Facts about Magnet

This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets. ... A permanent magnet is an object made from a material that is magnetized and creates its own persistent magnetic field.

The iron ore magnetite, also known as lodestone, is a natural permanent magnet. Other permanent magnets can be made by subjecting certain materials to a magnetic force. When the force is removed, these materials retain their own magnetic properties. ... They are made by surrounding certain materials with a coil of wire.

The ancient Greeks were the first known to have used this mineral, which they called a magnet because of its ability to attract other pieces of the same material and iron. The Englishman William Gilbert (1540-1603) was the first to investigate the phenomenon of magnetism systematically using scientific methods.

There is a story about a shepherd named Magnes whose shoe nails stuck to a rock containing magnetite. There is an alternate story about a region of Macedonia called Magnesia as the starting point. I remember being taught that the Greeks discovered naturally occurring magnets of magnetite in Turkey.

Magnets attract iron due to the influence of their magnetic field upon the iron. ... When exposed to the magnetic field, the atoms begin to align their electrons with the flow of the magnetic field, which makes the iron magnetized as well. This, in turn, creates an attraction between the two magnetized objects.Mar 22, 2009

Magnets can either attract or repel each other. A permanent magnet is an object that produces a magnetic field around itself. It is this field that enables them to stick to each other and to some types of metal. Specifically, they stick to ferromagnetic materials like iron and things that contain iron, such as steel.

Since iron is a ferromagnetic material, a magnetic field induces each particle to become a tiny bar magnet. The south pole of each particle then attracts the north poles of its neighbors, and this process repeated over a wide area creates chains of filings parallel to the direction of the magnetic field.

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