Lab 12 - Magnetism and Electromagnetic Induction Introduction Natural magnets are pieces of rock composed of a ferromagnetic element, such as iron. Each atom in an iron magnet has a small magnetic field. (A field is a region in space in which forces are present.) Associated with the field is a polarity or direction. Clusters of billions of iron atoms can arrange themselves to form domains that exhibit a field that points in a particular direction (Figure 1). The combined atomic fields produce an effective field. Every magnet has two poles that establish the direction of the magnetic field: a north pole (N) and a south pole (S)