Harish was asked to identify a piece of soft iron put in a basket of 10 magnets of the same shape and size. Which is the easiest way of identifying the iron piece at the earliest?
By conducting repulsion test using any two magnets at a time
A freely suspended magnet rests in the north-south direction. When Harish suspends the bar one at a time, he will surely find out which bar is not a magnet, as that bar won't come to rest in the north-south direction. He has to repeat this exercise for utmost 10 times.
When he brings another strong magnet near the basket, bars may get attracted to the magnet, depending on which pole of the magnet is facing the bar. The bar which is not a magnet will eventually be identified by the aid of repeated repulsion test.
When Harish takes two bars at a time and conducts repulsion test, he is likely to get the result in at most 6 attempts. If a bar doesn't repel another bar no matter however the bars are oriented, then the bar is surely not a magnet. Repulsion is the surest test for magnetism, because magnetic materials only attract a magnet, whereas magnets repel each other when they face each other in a certain orientation.