[HN Gopher] What Materials Are Magnetic?
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       What Materials Are Magnetic?
        
       Author : rwmj
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2024-07-18 17:18 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sciencenotes.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sciencenotes.org)
        
       | FrankWilhoit wrote:
       | Their example of nickel is a U. S. five-cent coin. Nickel is
       | ferromagnetic, but the coin is 75% copper and a magnet will not
       | pick it up.
        
         | barelyauser wrote:
         | But they can be picked up with right kind of electromagnetic
         | arrangement[0].
         | 
         | [0]. https://youtu.be/7ZeBWJLRXqM&t=1231
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | I have a shrunken nickel from these folks:
         | 
         | https://www.capturedlightning.com/frames/interesting1.html
         | 
         | Don't know if the copper figures into the shrinking...
        
         | analog31 wrote:
         | Interestingly, the Canadian coins are the same dimensions, but
         | are magnetic. US vending machines used to have a magnet that
         | would deflect Canadian coins into the coin return slot.
         | 
         | When I was growing up near Detroit, merchants took US and
         | Canadian coins interchangeably, and gave both back out as
         | change. But the Post Office was strict about it. I managed to
         | collect a set of King George coins -- at least the smaller
         | ones.
        
           | eth0up wrote:
           | And some Canadian coins used be actual sterling, until they
           | went to 80%ag. I think US coins were always 90.
           | 
           | A few nickels from the early 1940s were, I think, 43% Ag, due
           | to wartime metal shortages.
           | 
           | But man, if you ever find a 1943 copper wheat penny in good
           | to fair condition, you can think about retiring. The 1943
           | steel penny goes for about < $2.00 on average.
        
       | bediger4000 wrote:
       | Tungsten carbide is magnetic. I bought a "tungsten" cube from
       | some shoddy Amazon vendor. It's a lot denser than steel, but not
       | as dense as pure tungsten. It is magnetic. The density of the
       | cube is in the range of tungsten carbide.
        
         | foobarian wrote:
         | I got one of those too, and it came with a manifest showing
         | that there is about 5% of nickel in the composition so not too
         | surprising.
         | 
         | I would certainly be surprised if they could manufacture a pure
         | cube (> 99.9%) for the price they sell it at :-)
        
           | matsemann wrote:
           | What are you using the cubes for?
        
         | cyberax wrote:
         | > Tungsten carbide is magnetic
         | 
         | Pure tungsten carbide is not. You just got some magnetic
         | contaminants in it.
         | 
         | This has is a good test for fake "gold" that can consist of
         | tungsten core with a thin film of gold on top. It's pretty much
         | impossible to get pure tungsten, so such "gold" ends up being
         | magnetic.
        
       | RavingGoat wrote:
       | My smile of course :)
        
       | bsmith89 wrote:
       | Most interesting sentence:
       | 
       | > 304 stainless steel isn't normally magnetic, but it becomes
       | partially ferromagnetic if it's bent at room temperature.
       | 
       | Anyone have a lay-person explanation for this?
        
         | koolba wrote:
         | Not a physicist, but I'd guess that bending the metal causes it
         | to heat up, which in turn could make it easier for electrons to
         | align and respond to magnetic waves.
        
           | Tuna-Fish wrote:
           | Nope, heating would make it non-magnetic again.
           | 
           | It's the act of physically working it that makes it change
           | structure.
        
           | Keyframe wrote:
           | you're only right about not being a physicist. sorry, had to
           | have a laugh. What made you draw that conclusion?
        
         | Tuna-Fish wrote:
         | Iron exists in many different crystal structures in different
         | kinds of steels. Some of these forms are magnetic, others are
         | not. When you work the metal, such as by bending it, you can
         | cause it to change from one structure to another.
         | 
         | 304 is an austenitic stainless steel, and austenite is non-
         | magnetic. But when it's cold worked, it turns into martensite,
         | which is harder and magnetic. If you anneal it by heating it
         | and letting it cool, it turns back into austenite.
        
           | riiii wrote:
           | Interesting. Do you know if it affects it's anti-rust
           | properties after you work it / make it martensite?
        
       | dvh wrote:
       | Liquid oxygen is magnetic too (I think para in this case)
        
         | mankyd wrote:
         | That's mentioned at the bottom: "However, liquid oxygen and
         | boron fullerenes (B80) are paramagnetic."
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | Wonder if you could use that to separate gasses.
         | 
         | I also wonder about "sorting" atoms/molecules like Maxwell's
         | demon:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon
        
       | DoingIsLearning wrote:
       | Very cool, the site's entire 'materials' archives is really
       | interesting as a layman in Materials Science. [0]
       | 
       | This kind of reminded of the sense of wonder of reading through
       | Encarta entries in the late 90's and how I assumed the internet
       | would look like in the future.
       | 
       | [0] https://sciencenotes.org/category/chemistry/materials/
        
       | SigmundA wrote:
       | So aluminum and copper are listed as not magnetic yet powerful
       | magnets are used to separate them from non metallic materials in
       | recycling? Seems like a semantic argument.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_separator
        
         | wtallis wrote:
         | > Seems like a semantic argument.
         | 
         | That kind of phrasing usually indicates someone doesn't
         | understand or is rejecting a meaningful and useful distinction.
         | Is that what you intended to do here?
         | 
         | The article seems to be pretty clear about how there are
         | several different types of magnetism that can be exhibited by
         | materials, and appropriately classifies various materials.
         | Nothing about the existence or mechanism of eddy current
         | separators is a counterexample to anything in the article.
        
           | SigmundA wrote:
           | "Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur
           | through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or
           | repel each other."
           | 
           | Aluminum is repelled by a strong magnetic field, hence the
           | use of ECS, plastic is not. Aluminum is not Ferro-magentic it
           | does however seem to be magnetic depending on the definition.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetism
           | 
           | The article itself on contradictory showing aluminium as
           | nonmagnetic then classifying as paramagnetic, which is a type
           | of magentisim, which is it?
        
             | eth0up wrote:
             | I'm not a kid, but resemble one when I get a hold of a
             | copper tube and strong neodymium magnet. Probably my
             | favorite toy. I'm kind of glad I have only a kid's
             | understanding of it.
        
       | csours wrote:
       | https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-magne...
       | 
       | Iron Nitrides
        
       | mjfl wrote:
       | At the microscopic level, what determines whether a given set of
       | valence elections has an excess spin, and thus an excess magnetic
       | moment, is still determined by an empirical set of rules, called
       | Hund's rules, instead of from first principles, iirc:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hund%27s_rules
        
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