Concept
Version 9
Created by Boundless
Ferromagnets and Electromagnets
Unmagnetized to Magnetized Iron
(a) An unmagnetized piece of iron (or other ferromagnetic material) has randomly oriented domains. (b) When magnetized by an external field, the domains show greater alignment, and some grow at the expense of others. Individual atoms are aligned within domains; each atom acts like a tiny bar magnet.
Source
Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:
"OpenStax College, Ferromagnets and Electromagnets. January 16, 2015."
http://cnx.org/content/m42368/latest/Figure_23_02_02a.jpg
OpenStax CNX
CC BY 3.0.