What type of magnet has a magnetic field produced by electric current?

• A. Permanent Magnet
• B. Electromagnet
• C. Ferrite Magnet
• D. Temporary Magnet

Answer: (B)

Electric current in a wire produces a magnetic field. When that wire is wound into a coil around a soft iron core, the magnetic field becomes strong and easily controllable, which is the defining feature of an electromagnet. Unlike permanent magnets, which generate their field from the alignment of internal domains and don’t need current to exist, an electromagnet’s field appears only when current flows and can be varied or switched off by changing the current. Materials like ferrites are used as permanent-magnet materials, not to create a field with current, and a temporary magnet refers to material that can be magnetized in an external field but doesn’t sustain a field on its own when current is removed. So the magnet whose field is produced by electric current is an electromagnet.