how do magnets attract things like iron from a distance, without using energy?

Question

I’ve read somewhere that magnets dont do work so they dont use energy, but then how come they can move metallic objects? where is that coming from?

In: Physics

Answer 1

If a permanent magnet attracts some object, then one of the two happened before:

* The object was first moved away from the magnet, which required energy
* Something got magnetized which wasn’t a magnet before, which also required energy

In both cases, there is no way to create energy out of nothing.