ferromagnetism

Physics. The property of a material that is normally known as magnetic. Certain materials contain infinitesimal "inner magnets" that align in the presence of an exterior magnetic field in the direction of this field due to the field force and their own interactions. The result is an attractive force between the material and the magnet.

There are two types of ferromagnetism: magnetically soft and magnetically hard. In a magnetically soft material the magnetic property vanishes- except for a small rest, the so called remanence - when it is removed from the exterior field. In a magnetically hard material the alignment of the inner elementary magnets remains and with it the magnetic property, when the exterior field is shut off. This behaviour of magnetically soft and hard materials is called magnetic hysteresis. However this effect can be seen only up to a certain temperature, the Curie temperature. Above this temperature the material becomes paramagnetic.

Ferromagnetic materials are for example iron, cobalt and nickel.

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