Question

you have two electrically neutral metal cylinders that exert strong attractive forces on eath other. You have no other metal objects. Can you determine if both of the cylinders are megnets, or if one is a magnet and the other just a piece of iron? If so, how? If not, why not?

Answer 1

Answer:

It is possible to determine whether they are or not.

Explanation:

For the particular case in which both are magnets it will tend to happen that the magnets by their magnetic field will try to repel each other. Which would allow to identify and corroborate that both are magnets.

In the case where one of them is magneto and the other is not, the magnet will tend to attract it, regardless of how the object of metallic material is rotated.

In the case that it is not of a ferrous material, the magnet will simply do nothing.