Magnetic Materials

There are a number of elements that are attracted by magnets, commonly referred to as ‘magnetic’. These are the same materials that can be magnetised to create permanent magnets, Here you can see a list of magnetic elements and minerals:

Magnetic materials are categorised as magnetically hard, or magnetically soft materials. Magnetically soft materials are easily magnetised but the induced magnetism is usually temporary. For example, if you rub a permanent magnet along a nail, or a screwdriver, the nail or screwdriver will become temporarily magnetised and will emit their own weak magnetic field. This is because a large number of their iron atoms are temporarily aligned in the same direction by the external magnetic field.