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Additional Magnet Information

A refrigerator magnet is an ornament, often whimsical, attached to a small magnet which is used to post items such as shopping lists or report cards on a refrigerator, or which simply serves as decoration. Refrigerator magnets come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, including but not limited to images die-cut to a specific shape or tiny plastic sculptures of fruits. Refrigerator magnets are a relatively popular object of collectors.

The first refrigerator magnet patent was obtained by William Zimmerman of St. Louis, Missouri, in the early 1970s. Zimmerman patented the idea of small, colored, cartoon magnets to be used for decorative display and convenience.

Unlike most conventional magnets that have distinct north and south poles, flat refrigerator magnets made from composite materials are often constructed with alternating north and south poles on the same surface of the plane; this can be felt by taking two similar (or identical) refrigerator magnets and sliding them against each other with the "magnetic" sides facing each other: the magnets will alternately repel and attract as they are moved a few millimeters. This construction gives twice the magnetism on one side and is thus more effective at keeping the large planar magnet uniformly stuck onto the steel refrigerator than a uniformly-polarized magnet would be. It is also responsible for making the front of the magnet (the picture side) nearly non-magnetic. The technical term for this arrangement is Halbach array.

Magnets are an iconic piece of America. More than 80% of all households in developed nations have magnets on their fridge, for both utility and purely decorative purposes. A refrigerator magnet's lifespan is typically between 5-10 years. The number of times a refrigerator door is viewed in an average household per day is 40, meaning that each magnet makes approximately 14,600 impressions per year.

Sets containing magnets in the shape of the letters of the alphabet have been manufactured since at least the 1960s, and marketed as an educational production for young children. In the 1990s, sets of very small magnets printed with individual words became popular; these sets are used to create impromptu magnetic poetry. Relatively strong magnets with hooks are produced for the purpose of hanging oven mitts or keys. Magnets that serve as a picture frame are also fairly common. Magnets with notepads or dry erase boards are occasionally produced.

Collecting magnets, such as city and county magnets from all around the world, became a popular hobby, as also collecting of many other memorabilia. Many people are bringing refrigerator magnets from cities, sights, places and countries they've been to, because such magnets are popular and inexpensive touristic souvenirs. Though there is no official term (like numismatics) for collecting magnets, but with a growing interest to this subject there is some approach by collectors to find a proper term. For instance, a russian collector proposes a term memomagnetics (Russian: мемомагнетика), derived from words memoriale (lat.) and magnetis (gr.). Then a collector of magnets would be called memomagnetist. These terms were accepted by the biggest Russian online community for magnet collectors.

A largest collection of refrigerator magnets belongs to Louise J. Greenfarb also known as The Magnet Lady, from Henderson, Nevada (suburb of Las Vegas, USA). Her world record was included to the Guinness World Records with 19,300 items as of 1997. According to the British "Book of alternative records", it grew to 29,000 as of February 2002, and later up to over 30,000 items. Over 7,000 magnets from Greenfarb's collection are exhibited at the Guinness Museum in Las Vegas.