Exchange spring magnet
The magnetostatic energy is the energy stored in the field generated by a material's magnetic moments. The magnet's field reaches its maximum intensity if all the magnetic moments orient in one direction; this is what occurs in a hard magnet. In order to prevent building up the magnetic field, sometimes magnetic moments tend to form loops. That way, the energy stored in the magnetic field can be constrained; this is what occurs in a soft magnet. What determines whether a magnet is hard or soft is the dominant term of its magnetic energy. For hard magnets, the anisotropy constant is relatively large, making the magnetic moments align with easy axis. The opposite case applies to soft magnets, in which the magnetostatic energy is dominant.
Magnet
The north pole of a magnet is defined as the pole that, when the magnet is freely suspended, points towards the Earth's North Magnetic Pole in the Arctic (the magnetic and geographic poles do not coincide, see magnetic declination). Since opposite poles (north and south) attract, the North Magnetic Pole is actually the "south" pole of the Earth's magnetic field. As a practical matter, to tell which pole of a magnet is north and which is south, it is not necessary to use the Earth's magnetic field at all. For example, one method would be to compare it to an electromagnet, whose poles can be identified by the right-hand rule. The magnetic field lines of a magnet are considered by convention to emerge from the magnet's north pole and reenter at the south pole.