Permanent & Induced Magnets
2 guided lessons · 18 checks · 6. Magnetism and Electromagnetism → Magnetism and Electromagnetism
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Magnetic materials and the permanent/induced split
Only a short list of substances — iron, steel, cobalt, nickel — respond to magnets at all. Permanent magnets hold their magnetism indefinitely; induced magnets are ordinary magnetic materials that gain poles only while sitting in a field, and always pull towards whatever induced them.
What you know already
Permanent magnets keep their poles for decades; induced magnets borrow them for as long as the field lasts. This note sorts the magnetic family — iron, steel, cobalt, nickel — into hard keepers and soft losers, and shows why a magnet plus an unmagnetised material can only ever attract.
Key points of understanding
- Magnetic materials include iron, steel, cobalt, nickel and alloys containing them.
- Non-magnetic materials such as copper, aluminium, plastic and glass are unaffected by magnetic fields.
- A permanent magnet produces its own magnetic field continuously.
- An induced magnet is a magnetic material that becomes magnetised only while in another magnet's field.
- The force between a magnet and an induced magnet is always attraction.
Magnetic materials are attracted to a magnet; non-magnetic materials are not
Magnetic materials attracted to either pole of a magnet
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1.Magnetic materials and the permanent/induced split
Only a short list of substances — iron, steel, cobalt, nickel — respond to magnets at all. Permanent magnets hold their magnetism indefinitely; induced magnets are ordinary magnetic materials that gain poles only while sitting in a field, and always pull towards whatever induced them.
Magnetic materials are attracted to a magnet; non-magnetic materials are not
Magnetic materials attracted to either pole of a magnet
Key points
- Magnetic materials include iron, steel, cobalt, nickel and alloys containing them.
Guided content from the SME authoring corpus — note rn_xKZn9BFkpxpy6pBG, pinned at 6312d659ec0d · promoted SyllabAI/syllabai-resources b3caaaa90c5e
