Question

What is a Natural magnet? State two limitations of a Natural magnets.

Answer 1

A magnet is a material or object which tends to develop a magnetic field around itself due to its property. The magnetic field is an invisible field. But its field is felt by ferromagnetic materials like iron, steel and others which feels a presence of force which attracts them towards the magnetic when they are in its field.

Complete answer:
The materials which tend to develop an invisible magnetic field and feel their presence when materials like iron and other ferromagnetic materials come into its field. Magnets are also classified into two types mainly natural magnet and electromagnet.

Natural magnet: It refers to those magnets which occur naturally on Earth. They do not lose their magnetic properties with time. Hence, they can be also referred to as permanent magnets. Natural magnets can be found in deposits of sand in various parts of the world. The strongest natural magnet material is lodestone, also known as magnetite.

Limitations of natural magnet are:
(i) Their usage is limited, as they are found in different shapes. They cannot be demagnetised according to the need.
(ii) The magnetic field developed by a natural magnet is constant. We cannot increase or decrease it. Also the field is not that strong enough as the electromagnets.

Note: It must be noted that ferromagnetic materials refer to those substances which spontaneously exhibit net magnetization even without the presence of any magnetic field. These substances when kept in an external magnetic field are instantaneously magnetized in the direction of the field.