Magnetism is a property of iron, and of materials made mostly from iron.

Non-metals are not magnetic.

Magnets attract objects that contain iron and steel (this is called magnetic attraction), meaning that they exert a pulling force on those objects.

Magnets can also repel other magnets (this is called magnetic repulsion) when similar poles are facing each other. This means that they exert a pushing force on each other.

We use this special magnetic property in many everyday objects such as alarms, fasteners and even credit cards.

Remote car keys contain tiny magnets:

and so do bank cards:

We can investigate the strength of magnets by testing them.

So, let's get stuck into this activity and see what we can find out..