If iron cobalt and nickel are magnetic (which I think is the right term, but it feels wrong since magnets stick but it doesn’t magnet to other steel) then why does using nickel to make stainless steel render steel non-magnetic?
Or is my metallurgical understanding just completely off?
In: Physics
Ok so simple explanation.
Steel is magnetic because of its crystal structure.
Think of a marshmallow and toothpick model from grade school. Let’s pretend that the normal Cube shape is magnetic and other shapes like pyramids aren’t.
Stainless steel replaces some of the marshmallows with apples. The apples make the cube shape all weird with pyramids and other shapes so it’s not magnetic. There are still some Cubes, but not enough to make a magnet stick.
But you can sometimes make it magnetic by bending it or hitting it. Bending the steel squashes the model back into enough cubes to make the magnet work again.
Same thing with heating normal steel. The marshmallows get hot and the cubes sag, so it stops being magnetic. When it cools back down the cubes form up again.
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