What is a magnet? Why there are only a few metals that are attracted to magnets?
In: Physics
This is the best ELI5 that I could came up with, it’s not the full explanation and it’s not 100% accurate but should give you an idea of how things work. First of all magnetism in materials happens because of electrons, their spinning motion around the atom’s nucleus generates tiny magnetic forces. Now you can have a material in which all atoms are pretty much ordered so most electrons spin in the same direction and the magnetic forces add up to form a large magnet, or they can be a mess and all the magnetic forces cancel each other out. The materials that are attracted to magnets fall somewhat in between these two categories: their atoms are a bit messy but if you put a natural magnet near them they can somehow find an order and became magnets themselves.
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