--- title: "Why do some metals attract magnets?" description: "Why do some metals attract magnets?" author: "Erick Wilsom" published: 2023-10-19 updated: 2023-10-19 canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/103940/why-do-some-metals-attract-magnets category: "science" tags: ["science"] reading_time: 2 minutes --- # Why do some metals attract magnets? ## Answers ### Answer by Saumya Mishra **Metals are attracted by magnet due to their electronic configuration. These little particles are called electrons and they revolve around the nuclei of atoms. Spin is one of the [properties](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/23331/nootropics-7-different-types-and-their-unique-properties) possessed by each electron and they may either face up or face down. Most electrons in most [materials](https://www.mindstick.com/blog/301857/how-materials-work-in-space-to-make-them-better-on-earth) are usually paired up such that one electron is up spiraling while the next one is downspiraling. By doing this, it nullifies the magnetic fields from the electrons hence there is a net [magnetic field](https://www.mindstick.com/news/1622/astronomers-made-a-discovery-of-a-supermassive-black-hole-with-a-flipped-magnetic-field) of zero magnitudes.** - Metals like iron, nickel and cobalt, a few of the electrons have antiparallel spins. Such unmatched electrons give rise to miniature magnetic fields that become parallelly aligned. So a whole magnetic field is created and that is why metal goes for magnets. - Magnetic field in a metal becomes stronger with an [increase](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2333/mahindra-s-q4-profit-increased-by-46-as-vehicle-sales-increased-by-75) in the number of unpaired electrons, and their degree of alignment. Ferromagnetic is [referred to as](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/39930/at-the-turn-of-the-century-widespread-panic-occurred-that-at-midnight-all-computers-would-reset-to-zero-and-life-as-we-knew-it-would-cease-to-exist-what-was-this-doomsday-theory-commonly-referred-to-as) the most strongly magnetic metals. They have a lot of unpaired electrons that they all align in one direction. Aluminum and copper are other metals with few unpaired electrons or less in alignment. These metals are called paramagnets. They only have a weak attraction towards magnets and cannot be attracted either. Ferromagnets are used in a wide variety of applications, including: - **Permanent magnets**: The fact that ferromagnetics can become permanent magnets makes them useful for things like compasses and [electric motors](https://www.mindstick.com/news/1248/vanilla-ola-s1-scooter-halts-in-production-as-it-offers-ola-s1-pro-features-to-buyers). - **Electromagnets**: Electromagnets, which are on/off magnets made of ferromagnets, are another example. For example, electromagnets are widely utilized in the [design](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/126148/the-way-to-merge-psd-style-and-design-in-to-reactive-html) of a variety of machines including but not limited to magnetic resonance imaging machines among others and speakers loudspeakers among others. - **[Data storage](https://www.mindstick.com/news/1983/during-extreme-heatwave-the-twitter-s-server-went-down)**: Data storage [devices](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2581/android-and-google-nest-devices-can-now-communicate-with-matter) use ferromagnets for example hard drives and magnetic tapes. Bits are [stored](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/644/where-is-the-output-of-explain-stored) as information using the magnetic field of a ferromagnet. --- Original Source: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/103940/why-do-some-metals-attract-magnets Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.