Short Notes:

It is a misconception that magnets are able to attract all kinds of metal. In fact, magnets can attract only certain metallic objects. Whether a metal is able to be attracted to a magnet depends on how the metal's electrons behave. Since an electron spinning about an atom generates a magnetic field, all atoms are tiny magnets; but in most substances, the atom's haphazard magnetic effects cancel each other out.

In magnets, however, the atom's magnetic field line up in such a way that they create regions called domains. These fields have a north and a south pole. So-called field lines - concentrated regions of magnetism - run from a magnet's north pole to its south pole. This is known as the field direction. A magnet's north pole will attract another's south pole, while two identical poles will repel each other. Magnets attract only certain metals, chiefly iron, nickel, and cobalt, known as ferromagnetic materials. Though these materials are not natural magnets, their atoms rearrange themselves near a magnet so that they acquire magnetic poles.

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