Students should be able to describe: the attraction and repulsion between…

The idea

This pulls the section together, and answers need both halves. For poles: like poles repel, unlike poles attract, and the force grows as the magnets get closer. For magnet types: a permanent magnet produces its own field all the time with fixed poles and can repel, whereas an induced magnet is magnetic only while it is in a field, its poles are set by that field, the force is always attraction, and it loses most or all of its magnetism quickly once the field is removed. In a table of pole pairings every row is judged separately, with AQA awarding one of the two marks for three out of four rows correct.

What earns the marks

• A table of pole pairings with all four rows correct; one mark if three rows are correct.
• Stating that a permanent magnet produces its own magnetic field at all times.
• Stating that an induced magnet is magnetic only while it is in a magnetic field.
• Stating that induced magnetism always causes attraction and is lost quickly when the field is removed.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Filling in a table of pole pairs by pattern instead of reading each pair of poles.

• Defining an induced magnet only as temporary, which is not enough for the mark.

• Describing the difference by material alone rather than by behaviour in a field.

• Forgetting that a permanent magnet is also attracted to the induced magnet it creates.

Exam tips

• Check each row of a table independently; three right out of four still scores something.
• A difference question wants a statement about each type, written as a comparison.
• If asked to describe, give the behaviour, not just the name of the material.