like is there a magnetic mineral or something
They push both ways-but if it pushed it towards the vehicle it would just blow right back on your window going down the road!
Do you have a hole in your windshield ? I never get wet driving
Nickel, Iron, and cobalt are the only pure simple elements that can be made magnetic. Magnetism occurs by lining up the electron spins (called domains) in these metals. Sometimes they naturally occur in nature magnetized (by the earth's own field) but more often they are made in labs by placing molten metal in a magnetic field and then drastically cooling it while the domains are all aligned. To make a magnetic field, they use many turns of wire (like a solenoid), since moving charge is the actual cause of a magnetic field.
To answer your question about there being a magnetic mineral, yes, there is. It is commonly called lodestone. As for this being the source of modern magnets, not by a long shot. The strongest magnets that are not produced by an electrical current are the rare earth magnets. These are an alloy that is made to be magnetic as described by one of the other respondents.
A magnet is a material whose atoms are at least partially aligned. Specifically, the angular momentum vectors of the electrons orbiting the atomic nuclei tend to point in the same direction. If the angular momenta are randomly aligned, the material is not magnetic. If they tend to point in a certain direction, that direction is one of the poles of the magnet. If a magnet is heated above its critical Curie temperature, thermal effects will destroy the alignment, rendering a formerly magnetic material nonmagnetic.
