is it possible for a copper pice to become magnetic?
Copper piece cannot be magnetic. Soft ferromagnetic materials like Fe, Co, Ni etc require a magnetic field (for some materials earths magnetic field itself is sufficient) to become magnetised.Copper is a paramagnetic material. It requires very large fields to acquire magnetisation, that too very small. Hence it is not magnetic even if you run electric current through it. You may have noticed copper wire in household wiring and windings in motor. Magnetic fields are produced by the motion of electrical charges. The magnetic field or moment are produced only by the current passing through the copper wire and not by copper.Note that electromagnetic waves themselves have electric and magnetic field components. If you consider a single turn solenoid Magnetic Field, H current (I)/length(L) unit A/m Magnetic moment,m current (I)*Area (A) unit A.m^2
All materials possess some magnetic properties. These are found by (1) The fact that a magnetic field exerts FORCES AND TORQUES on the bodies and (2) The fact that the body distorts the magnetic field. Using the above properties materials are classified into three categories; Ferro, Para and Dia magnets. Ferro magnetic materials (iron) when placed in a magnetic field distort the field considerably. Para (tungsten) and dia (copper) when placed in a magnetic field distort the field negligibly. The forces exerted by magnetic fields may be detected without particular difficulty in the case of para and dia magnetic materials. In the case of iron objects, every one is familiar with the fact that magnetic fields exert large forces. For detecting the torque and forces exerted by a uniform magnetic field is not suited in the case of para and dia magnetic materials. When placed in a non uniform magnetic field, a para magnetic body is attracted toward the region of strong magnetic field, while a diamagnetic body is repelled from such a region. In a uniform magnetic field a paramagnetic needle tends to become oriented with its axis along the flux lines, while a diamagnetic needle tends to oriented perpendicular to the flux lines.
It is possible for anything to be magnetized even a plasma gas, however such a material would lose its residual magnetism rapidly. while materials such as iron are better magnetic materials. typically the harder it is to magnetize a material the longer it will remain magnetized and vice versa. Ceramics make very strong long lasting magnets.
