Question

can steel be attracted by magnets ? why ?
what substances can be attracted by magnets ?

Answer 1

Yes, it does, because magnets and magnetic attraction rely on A) the strength of the magnet, and B) the iron content of the substance you're trying to attract. Metals that are "ferrous" have iron in them (the element Iron on the periodic table is labeled 'Fe', after the latin word for iron, which is Ferrum).

Materials that can be magnetized, which are also the ones that are strongly attracted to a magnet, are called ferromagnetic (or ferrimagnetic). These include iron, nickel, cobalt, some alloys of rare-earth metals, and some naturally occurring minerals such as lodestone.