it'd be helpful if there was some sort of legend describing what those arrows imply…
No but seriously, most magnetism is generally explained by rotating electron movement.
You know eletromagnets? They generally look like copper coils. The idea is that because electricity flows round and round, you create a magnetic field.
Similarly, and this is how electrical generators work, a moving magnet can induce electrical flow.
Magnets are commonly seen as having its electrons move in the same direction in a circle. Regular iron, for example, has random electron movement. It is normally not a magnet. When a magnet comes near, however, it suddenly does. This is because the electron movement in the iron aligns with the electron movement in the magnet, causing both parts to attract eachother.
This is a heavily simplified view of course, but it sketches out the general situation.
Gib blueprints, I'll steal the parts
