• Question: How does a magnet react with metal?

    Asked by 679rdme25 to Scott, Gaia on 10 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      Excellent question, and in fact on of the most difficult to answer!

      A lot of things in physics want to ‘minimize energy’. That means things are naturally lazy! If there’s an easier way of doing something that takes less energy to perform, the universe will try to do it 😎 When a magnet is near some iron (note: magnets don’t stick to all types of metal) the gap between it and the iron fills up with energy. The universe thinks: Hey! I don’t want all this energy – I’m going to close that gap! And that’s the pull you feel from the magnet 🙂

      I hope that explains it a bit. Magnets are some of my favorite things in science 😆

    • Photo: Gaia Andreoletti

      Gaia Andreoletti answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      I am not an expert like Scott but I think magnets attracts metals because some metals have the right “magnetic momentum” that makes them attactable.

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