How do magnets work if there is no magnetic charge like electric charge?

Unlike electric charge, isolated magnetic charge has never been observed in ordinary physics. Magnetism arises from moving electric charges and from a quantum property of particles called spin. In materials like iron, many atomic magnetic moments can align, creating a net magnetic field. That is why a bar magnet always has both a north and a south pole; cutting it in half produces two smaller magnets, not isolated poles. Maxwell’s equations describe these magnetic effects as part of the unified electromagnetic force.