In their most basic sense, magnets are objects that have magnetic fields, and this field is what allows that to attract to each other and other metals, like iron, steel, nickel, and cobalt.
Magnets have a North and South pole, and when you place one magnet’s North pole near another’s South pole, they’re attracted to each other and stick. Similarly, when you put a magnet’s North pole to another North pole, they’re pushed apart. Since the Earth contains magnetic materials, the poles are named because a magnet’s North pole points near the Earth’s north pole and vice versa.
When most people think of magnetism, they think about the magnetic force experienced between two magnets. The magnetic force is caused by the magnet’s magnetic field and points in the direction of the field lines. If you have two magnets next to each other and their north poles are facing each other or their south poles are facing each other, you can see that the field lines move away from each other, so you feel a repelling force between the two magnets.
If you put the north pole of one magnet next to the south pole of the other, then the field lines go straight from the north pole of the first magnet to the south pole of the second, and you feel an attractive force between the two magnets.
