What does a magnet do?
Magnets do the following:
- 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, like poles repel)
- Affect electrical conductors when the magnet and conductor move relative 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 any of their own energy.
Examples of magnet functions include:
- Mechanical to mechanical, such as attraction and repulsion
- Mechanical to electrical, such as generators and microphones
- Electrical to mechanical, such as motors, loudspeakers and the deflection of charged particles
- Mechanical to heat, such as eddy current and hysteresis torque devices
- Special effects such as magnetoresistance, Hall effect devices and magnetic resonance