What makes iron more ferromagnetic than most other metals?
When you expose some metals to a magnetic field, their unpaired electrons will all spin in the same direction. This creates a magnetic field around the metal itself, and the metal will remain magnetized even after you remove the outside magnetic field. This is called ferromagnetism. In order for this to happen, the element needs to have unpaired electrons to line up. The atoms need to be arranged in such a way that it is a lower energy state for the spins to line up. Iron, cobalt, nickel, and some of the rare-earth metals display significant ferromagnetism. The rare-earth metals make the strongest magnets because they have unpaired electrons in the high-energy f orbitals.
