what are magnetic materials?
Metals that are attached by magnets are called magnetic materials.
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. A hard or permanent magnet is one which stays magnetized for a long time, such as magnets often used on refrigerator doors. Permanent magnets occur naturally in some rocks, particularly lodestone, but are now more commonly manufactured. A soft or impermanent magnet is one which loses its memory of previous magnetizations. Soft magnetic materials are often used in electromagnets to enhance (often hundreds or thousands of times) the magnetic field of a wire that carries an electrical current and is wrapped around the magnet; the field of the soft magnet increases with the current.
