PULLMAN, Wash. – When I saw your question, I headed straight for the magnetics lab and met up with my friend John McCloy. I found out the word “magnet” comes from a Greek word for the region of modern-day Turkey we once called Magnesia. That’s where people found magnets in nature.
McCloy, an associate professor at Washington State University, reminded me that magnets are objects that have magnetic fields, which enter and exit through poles. You can think of these as the “front” and the “back” of the magnet, but normally we call them “north” and “south” poles.
These are the two ends where the magnetic force is the strongest.
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