6th Science NCERT Chapter 13

Natural magnets were discovered when a shepherd named Magnes found that his stick was being attracted by a rock on a mountainside, where the rock contained iron and attracted the iron tip of the shepherd's stick. This rock was a natural magnet known as magnetite.

Natural magnets are rocks like magnetite that naturally attract iron, while artificial magnets are made from pieces of iron using a magnet. Various shapes of artificial magnets like bar magnets, horse-shoe magnets, cylindrical, and ball-ended magnets are commonly used.

Magnetic materials like iron, nickel, and cobalt are attracted to magnets, while non-magnetic materials do not get attracted. In the chapter, soil is mentioned as a non-magnetic material. Objects like buttons, needles, and iron filings are examples of materials that can be attracted or not attracted by a magnet.

Iron filings stick more to some parts of a magnet than others, showing that poles exist on the magnet. In an activity where iron filings are spread on a paper and a bar magnet is placed on it, more filings get attracted to certain parts of the magnet. This demonstrates the existence of poles on the magnet.

One of the activities involves rubbing a magnet in sand or soil to see if particles stick to the magnet. If particles stick, they may be small pieces of iron (iron filings) picked up from the soil. This activity helps in identifying whether the soil or sand from a specific place contains iron particles, which is useful for understanding the magnetic properties of the soil at different locations.