Why can I just use lead or copper or aluminum foil for magnetic shielding?
In the strictest sense, magnetic shielding is not truly shielding at all. Unlike the way a lead shield stops X-rays, magnetic shielding materials create an area of lower magnetic field in their vicinity by attracting the magnetic field lines to themselves. The physical property which allows them to do this is called “permeability”. Unlike X-rays, sound, light or bullets, magnetic field lines must travel from the North pole of the source and return to the South pole. Under usual circumstances, they will travel through air, which by definition has a permeability of “1”. But if a material with a higher permeability is nearby, the magnetic field lines, efficient creatures that they are, will travel the path of least resistance (through the higher permeability material), leaving less magnetic field in the surrounding air.
