what elements are naturally permanently magnetic at room temperature? and what do they all have in common? as well do all the elements that produce magnetic attraction attract to all elements that are magnetically attracted? or are there certain combinations of magnets that attract to eachother? if so what combination of what makeup of an atom produces such attraction?
Natural magnets are generally Iron. Many times also nickel. But all of iron or nickel is not magnetised (i dunno why). There is always a force of cohesion between two molecules of same substance. That is, even a molecule of water can attract another molecule of water (like magnet), but one molecule of water cannot attract other molecule which is NOT water. (like substances attract by force of cohesion irrespective of electric or magnetic charge on them). When all particles in iron or nickel or any magnetic material align in north-south direction due to earth's magnetic field, a magnet is formed. There is no combination to create magnet.
Merlin's heart is in the right place but his science is off. The elements which can be permanently magnetized are Fe, Ni, Co, and Gd (since you specify room temp, Dy can be but only at very cold temperatures). That does not mean that any piece of these elements is automatically a permanent magnet. These materials can be magnetized and demagnetized and remagnetized as many times as you want. What they all have in common is a very particular configuration of certain electrons. The behavior of electrons is described by the field of Quantum Mechanics and suffice to say that there is still a LOT that we do not understand about the behavior of electrons. Humans have discovered that we can make stronger permanent magnets by combining certain elements (by alloying or chemically reacting) in just the right way. The current record holder for the strongest permanent magnet material is a variation of Nd2Fe14B1. A permanent magnet or the magnetic field produced by an electro-magnet will attract certain materials, magnetic materials. Other materials will not be affected by a magnetic field, neither attracted nor repelled. One other note. Contrary to Merlin's statement, H2O molecules attraction to other H2O molecules is NOT magnetic, it is electro-static. This happens only because H2O is a polar molecule, i.e., the electrical charge on the molecule is not uniformly distributed and, electrically, it has a + end and a - end. There are plenty of other molecules that are polar.
