Workbook Pages

Key Ideas

• Only a few metals are magnetic: iron, nickel, cobalt, and steel (which is mostly iron). Most metals, like aluminum and copper, are not.
• Magnetism was first discovered in nature, in a naturally magnetic rock called lodestone, before people learned to make magnets themselves.
• Every magnet has two poles, North and South. Opposite poles attract and matching poles repel, no matter the magnet's shape.
• A magnet's force can act without touching, and can pass through materials like paper, plastic, and glass, but it fades with distance.
• Magnets can be temporary, like a rubbed paperclip that loses its pull, or permanent, like a store-bought magnet that holds its pull for years.
• Magnets vary hugely in strength depending on what they're made of, and they do real jobs all around us, from cranes to speakers.

• Magnet: An object that produces a force pulling on iron, nickel, cobalt, and steel, without needing to touch them.
• Pole: One of the two ends of a magnet, called North and South, where the magnetic force is strongest.
• Attract: To pull toward. Opposite magnetic poles attract each other.
• Repel: To push away. Matching magnetic poles repel each other.
• Lodestone: A naturally occurring magnetic rock, found already able to attract iron without being made by anyone.
• Permanent magnet: A magnet, usually made of a special metal alloy, that holds its magnetism for years without fading.

1. A friend says a magnet sticks to anything metal. Using what you tested at home, what's wrong with that claim?
2. You have a rubbed paperclip and a store-bought magnet, both able to lift another paperclip right now. Predict which one will still work in a month, and why.
3. You hold two magnets a finger's width apart and feel a pull before they even touch. What does that tell you about how far a magnet's force can reach?

• A magnet, or two different magnets if you have them
• A handful of paperclips, a coin, aluminum foil, and other household objects to test
• A sheet of paper