What is difference between ferrous and non-ferrous metals?

Answer 1

Ferrous is from the Latin term which means iron (hence the elemental symbol "Fe") . A non-ferrous metal is any metal which is not iron or any alloy of metals which does not contain iron as a component. Most (but not all) ferrous alloys are magnetic and even those which are vary in magnetic attraction due to the amount of iron in the alloy. Stainless steel is not always magneticly attracted because the process of making it "stainless" removes a great deal of the iron (it is put in nitric acid to remove the iron leaving only a small amount of iron and mostly nickel). All ferrous alloys will exhibit some degree of oxidation (called rust only in the case of iron and iron alloys) which has a distinct reddish colour. If this isn't enough, please be more specific in your question as to what kind of difference (electro shell, valence, atomic weight, atomic number, Etc.).

Ferrous is magnetic due to its iron content, non ferrous doesn't contain iron, and therefore isn't magnetic.

Answer 2

A ferrous metal is metal that contains iron in appreciable amounts.

A non-ferrous metal is metal that does not contain iron in appreciable amounts. Generally non ferrous is more expensive than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable properties such as low weight (e.g., aluminium), higher conductivity (e.g., copper).