This thread originates from within 'usenet', and as such the content and users are not guaranteed to have been moderated by our community. Don Phillipson:[nq:1]I'm watching the Simpsons. Bart says Eat my shorts a lot and I know it's some kind of insult. But I'm just wondering what SHORT means in this sentence.
Materials that can be magnetized, which are also the ones that are strongly attracted to a magnet, are called ferromagnetic (or ferrimagnetic). These include iron, nickel, cobalt, some alloys of rare earth metals, and some naturally occurring minerals such as lodestone.
With other materials, the magnetic force is much larger, and these are referred to as magnets. The Earth itself is a huge magnet. Some magnets, known as permanent magnets, exert a force on objects without any outside influence. The iron ore magnetite, also known as lodestone, is a natural permanent magnet.