If you bring a magnet is brought nearby, the domains of the iron nail will align in such a way that, the north pole of iron domains will face the south pole of the magnet, and visa versa. When you remove the magnet, the nail becomes permanent magnet for a while.

When two magnets are brought together, the opposite poles will attract one another, but the like poles will repel one another. This is similar to electric charges. Like charges repel, and unlike charges attract.

Rubbing With a Magnet Rubbing the nail with the permanent magnet causes a stronger, more lasting magnetism in the nail. Stroking with one pole of a permanent magnet works because it aligns the atoms in the nail to “line up” in the same polar direction, giving the nail a north and a south magnetic pole.

An iron or steel nail can be made into a magnet by stroking it repeatedly (at least 20 times) with a magnet in one direction only. Stroking in an anticlockwise direction with the North pole touching the head of the iron nail will make the head of the nail the North pole and its tip the South pole.

The nail will stick to the bar magnet because it will become magnetized. The presence of the nearby north pole rearranges the magnetic domains inside the steel so that their south poles all point toward the north pole of the permanent magnet. As a result, the other end of the nail becomes a north pole.

Iron is not naturally magnetic, but it isn’t hard to turn it into a magnet. If you bring an iron nail close to the north end of a magnet, the south ends of the tiny magnets inside of the iron start to line up because they are attracted to the magnet, turning the iron into a magnet in the process.

Why won’t a magnet attract a nail that is on the other side of the room? The magnetic field is not strong enough. The magnet’s north pole is not facing the nail. The magnet repels objects far away.