A paragraph in my text reads:
An atom or ion with all electrons paired is not attracted by strong magnets and is termed 'diamagnetic'. In contrast, spins do not cancel when unpaired electrons are present. An atom or ion with unpaired electrons is attracted to strong magnets and is termed 'paramagnetic'.
That paragraph seems to state that diamagnetic things are, for most intents, non-magnetic things. Whereas, the following paragraph from the Wikipedia article on diamagnetism seems to state that diamagnetic things are, for all intents, magnetic things.
Diamagnetic materials create an induced magnetic field in a direction opposite to an externally applied magnetic field, and are repelled by the applied magnetic field.
What are diamagnets? How do they relate to paramagnets?
Best Answer
paramagnets = there are unpaired moments but the average of the-let's say-direction of the moments is pointing no where and we have zero net magnetic moment. but if we apply a magnetic field to this material, all the magnetic moments try to get in the direction of the applied magnetic field so the material a non zero magnetic moment.
diamagnets= there are no unpaired moments (atoms with completely filled atomic shells) and as you apply a magnetic field they do not want to change their stable state and according to the faraday's law there happens a n apposing moment to cancel the effect of the applied field.
now, i don't know if you were asking for something else or not?!