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Q:
Is iron pirate/fools gold a magnet metal?
- Blanca (age 50)
Riverside CA E,U
A:
No, it's neither ferromagnetic nor a metal. It's a semiconductor, sort of like silicon or germanium. It's paramagnetic, which means that it is weakly attracted to magnetic fields but has no magnetic domains with persistent magnetism of their own. If you want to look up more about iron pyrite, you could try
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite.
Mike W.
(published on 12/09/2011)
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