What does a magnet do?

Magnets do the following things:

• Attract certain materials such as iron, nickel, cobalt, certain steels and other alloys
• Exert an attractive or repulsive force on other magnets (opposite poles attract as poles repel).
• have effects on electrical conductors when the magnet and conductor move in relation to each other
• Influence the path of electrically charged particles moving in free space

Based on these effects, magnets convert energy from one form to another without permanently losing their own energy.

Examples of magnet functions are:

• Mechanical to mechanical, like attraction and repulsion.
• Mechanical to electrical, such as generators and microphones
• Electrical to mechanical, e.g. motors, loudspeakers, deflection of charged particles
• Mechanical heating, such as eddy current and hysteresis torque devices
• Special effects such as magnetoresistance, Hall-effect devices and magnetic resonance