Question

Place some iron filings on a sheet of paper and pass a bar magnet over them. Pick up the bar magnet by holding it in the centre. What do you see?

Answer 1

When the bar magnet is passed over the iron filings, the iron filings are attracted towards the magnet and stick to it. When the magnet is lifted by holding it at the centre, we observe that a larger number of iron filings stick near the two ends of the magnet, while very few stick near the middle.

This shows that the magnetic force is strongest at the two ends of a bar magnet. These two ends are called the poles of the magnet.