Hard and Soft Magnets

Because of the way their electrons are arranged, the metals iron, steel, nickel, and cobalt make good magnets. Once these metals become magnets, they can stay magnets forever. Then they are called hard magnets. But these metals and others can also act like magnets temporarily, after they have been near a hard magnet. Then they are called soft magnets. Most other materials—for example, water, air, and wood—have very weak magnetic properties.