Magnets were discovered by chance by an old shepherd named Magnets.
- He used to take his herd of sheeps and goats to a nearby mountain for grazing.
- He always took a wooden stick with him to manage his herd of sheep and goats. The wooden stick had an iron casing at its lower end.
- Suddenly he noticed the end of his stick and nails in his sandals got stuck to a rock. The iron in his stick and nails had become attracted to the magnetic rock.
- Actually, the rock was a natural magnet which attracted the iron end of Magnets stick.
- This rock which behaved like a magnet was given the name ‘magnetite.
- Magnetite rock contains iron. The magnetite attracted pieces of iron towards itself.
- Magnetite is one of the three natural occurring oxides of iron. It gets attracted to magnets and can be easily magnetized to form a permanent magnet.
- Naturally magnetized pieces of magnetite are called loadstone.
- On the basis of their behaviour towards a magnet, all the materials can be divided into two groups: magnetic materials (which are attracted by a magnet) and non-magnetic materials (which are not attracted by a magnet).
