From: Bob Higgins
Does this photo (slide 6) show a slab of ferrite magnet? - probably. The long thin hat pin is magnetized and the plastic tube keeps the long hat pin magnet from flipping and is thus able to levitate. I don't see anything mysterious here. It is just showing that the ferrite slab is permanently magnetized. Not exactly. The pin is iron and will be attracted as a soft ferromagnet. With a normal ferrite, the pin will touch the surface, not levitate since the opposite field is induced. With the type of conditioning in this ferrite, the pin seeks equilibrium in the highest concentration of magnetic field lines, which is in the space above the billet, not touching it. You can flip the pin over and it stays levitated where it is.
