Ferromagnetism

For the last century or so, every physics textbook has taught that there are two kinds of magnets, ferromagnets and antiferromagnets.

So electrons, as you may know, have a charge, but they also have another quality known as spin— Ferromagnets, like the ones you put on your fridge, occur when all the electrons in a material have the same direction of spin.

Antiferromagnets occur when adjacent spins are opposite to each other.

Now, researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and at Oak Ridge have confirmed a whole new type of magnet which exhibits properties of both of the others.

One particularity of nickel is that it is one of only four elements that are ferromagnetic at room temperature.

The other three are iron, cobalt, and a rare element called gadolinium, one of the rare earth elements we talked about before.

Ferromagnetic means that they can be attracted to magnets.

We are going to conclude for tonight with element number 29, copper, another major metal and probably the most significant industrially

after