Video narration
How can a refrigerator magnet seem to pull things by magic? Try it: a paper clip-snap! Paper-nothing. A coin? Test it, because coins can behave differently. Then try another safe object. The mystery flips: magnets do not attract every metal. That invisible reach is a magnetic field-the space around a magnet where its push or pull can act without touching. Bring two bar-magnet ends together. Opposite poles attract. Matching poles repel. Attraction to a material is one rule; attraction between poles is another. Here's an experiment: lift one paper clip, touch a second clip to it, then a third. The chain hangs! The effect passes along the clips, but they do not become permanent magnets. So why does the refrigerator magnet stick? Its field reaches the material. That's it: magnets attract certain materials, while fields attract or repel-opposite poles attract, like poles repel.