News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Iron Ring by rom16384 on Tuesday May 07, 2013 @04:59PM (#5670746)
Iron is ferromagnetic.
Re:Iron Ring by jonny_eh on Tuesday May 07, 2013 @06:57PM (#5671415)
I was thinking of the stainless steel version, but looking that up looks like the answer is "depends". Depends on the definition of "magnetic" (since all materials are to a degree) and the type of stainless steel.

I just noticed that my own "iron" ring (which is stainless steel) doesn't seem to respond to typical magnets you'd find around the office.

Clearly _iron_ is though, considering it's the element with the symbol "Fe" which is short for Ferrum.

Re:Iron Ring by ars on Tuesday May 07, 2013 @07:29PM (#5671567)
Usually (but not always) higher quality stainless steel is not magnetic, while the lower quality is slightly magnetic.

However even slightly magnetic can be a problem in an MRI - and worse, there is no practical way for the MRI tech to tell how the stainless steel will act, so they will err on the side of caution.