Another group of commodities industrial metals seems to be exerting a magnetic force on some unusual targets.

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"There is a black hole, a magnetic force that draws powers back to Whitehall, " he said.

BBC: UK Politics

What mysterious magnetic force binds Tom Tancredo, the border-enforcing Colorado congressman, to Al Gore, the Earth saver?

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As those examples show, the status quo exerts a magnetic force on choices.

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Because Jupiter's axis of rotation does not quite line up with its magnetic axis, the moons that orbit the planet feel such a fluctuating magnetic force.

ECONOMIST: Blue moon

The electroweak force is a synthesis of two previously identified forces of nature, electromagnetism (itself a synthesis, carried out in the 19th century, of the electric and magnetic forces), and the weak nuclear force, which governs radioactive decay.

ECONOMIST: The 1999 Nobel prizes

The coil is suspended in an external magnetic field and the current running through it adjusted so that the attraction between the two magnets balances the gravitational force on the suspended mass.

ECONOMIST: Weighing a kilogram