magnet

     

A magnet is a material or object that prouces a magnetic field. A low-tech means to detect a magnetic field is to scatter iron filings and observe their pattern, as in the accompanying figure. A "hard" or "permanent" magnet is one that stays magnetized, such as a magnet used to hold notes on a refrigerator door. Permanent magnets occur naturally in some rocks, particularly lodestone, but are now more commonly manufactured. A "soft" or "impermanent" magnet is one that loses its memory of previous magnetizations. "Soft" magnetic materials are often used in electromagnets to enhance (often hundreds or thousands of times) the magnetic field of a wire that carries an electrical current and is wrapped around the magnet; the field of the "soft" magnet increases with the current.

Trivia about magnet

  • In the early 1830s Michael Faraday found that a moving one of these can produce an electric current
  • This "attractive" word is from 2 Greek words for "stone of magnesia"
  • The name of the mineral with formula Fe3O4 should tell you that it acts as a natural one of these