Magnets have an integral role in our daily life. From the refrigerator to music speakers, you may come across sheer magnetism almost everywhere. Generally known as Permanent Magnet, a natural magnet occurs naturally and has its magnetic field. Its magnetism is ‘always on’ and generates its persistent magnetic field, unlike an electromagnet which is made artificially. A coil of wire is wrapped around a ferrous core and needs an electric current to generate a magnetic field. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Natural Magnet its efficacy and strength compared to its counterpart.
Lodestone is the naturally occurring magnet that attracts iron particles. Permanent or natural magnets have their capacity, which are used for industrial purposes mainly. The following are some advantages of a natural magnet.
One of the greatest advantages of Natural magnet is that it occurs naturally, so there is no use of resources to manufacture artificial magnet. Natural or permanent magnets have a low magnetic field which tends to remain active throughout their life.
Lodestone or magnetite, the strongest natural magnet, is used in Magnetic Compass, which naturally aligns itself with the geographic north and south poles. If lodestone is hung from a rope, it will naturally turn until the north pole of the magnetite points towards Earth's North Pole.
Being the strongest natural magnet material, lodestone doesn’t need to be magnetized. It attracts iron particles naturally and can be used for various purposes.
Lodestone is also one of the gems that are rarely available. The mineral is black in color and very shiny when polished. You can find it often at a jewelry shop, and it is very expensive. You might also find one embedded into jewelry to add elegance to women's beauty.
Unfortunately, there are many disadvantages of natural magnet when compared with an artificial magnet. Some of the reasons why natural magnets can’t be used for industrial purposes are.
All the types of permanent magnets have low magnetic field strength, which makes them unusable for industrial use. In addition, even the strongest natural magnet lodestone can attract tiny iron particles. Another limitation of natural magnets is that they can attract only iron and other magnetic substances and not metals like Aluminium, Copper, etc.
A natural magnet occurs deep below the earth’s surface, which means more resources and time to extract it from the ground. Also, given its limited use and strength, the natural magnet costs more than artificial manufacturing, far more efficient and cheaper.
A natural magnet corrodes with time, which means that as time passes, the magnet will lose its strength and be less useful. This limitation adds to one of the concerning disadvantages of a natural magnet. Once it loses its strength, it can’t be regulated as per the need.
Given that a natural magnet is effective only at certain temperatures, it cannot be used to create hot device appliances. Also, the magnetism in a permanent magnet cannot be controlled or switched off, unlike an artificial magnet with numerous uses and is a perfect replacement for the natural magnet.
Conclusion on Advantages and Disadvantages of Natural Magnet
Understandings the Advantages and Disadvantages of Natural Magnet pretty much clears the picture as to why the industrial sector has more applications of an artificial magnet. There are more limitations of a natural magnet the advantages. Also, an artificial magnet can last longer than any natural magnet.
As a result of, their name suggests, diamagnetic materials have only a few applications since they can't be transformed into the desired form. They're not customizable to meet demand. They cannot be switched OFF or ON according to your requirement.
The lodestone, commonly known as magnetite, is a natural magnet. Pyrrhotite, ferrite, and columbite are other examples of natural magnets. Refrigerator magnets and neodymium magnets are two examples of permanent artificial magnets.
Natural magnets are the kind of magnet that may be found in nature. Man-made magnets, on the other hand, are magnets produced by humans. The electromagnet is an excellent example of an artificial magnet.
Natural magnets are actually small lumps of magnetic material, like magnetite or pyrrhotite. Lodestones are the most popular example of natural magnets.
Permanent magnets cannot be turned on or off once they have been magnetized, whereas this option is available in the case of artificial magnets.
