Answer to this #Electromagnetism_trivia: magnets on our fridge do not violate the impossibility of magnetic monopoles, but they work because of a smart arrangement of the topology of magnetic fields of many smaller magnetic domains assembled together.
So 52% of the people got it right.
here is a quick explainer:
the impossibility of magnetic monopoles is a strong belief in standard physics: all magnets have two poles ("north" and "south") and if we break a magnet in two, we always form a new pair of dipoles.
And yet, this is apparently violated by all magnets on our fridge: they stick to the fridge on one side, but if you flip them on the other side, they just fall down, as if they only have one magnetic polarity.
Why is that?
if the common fridge magnet would be made just as a big magnet, the topology of magnetic field lines across it would be similar to the figure: on one side magnetic field line exiting, on the other entering, and reversing the side of the magnet would make no change: the magnet would stick on the door of the fridge (which is paramagnetic and self-adjust for the external magnetic field) on either of its sides.
However, this is not how fridge magnets are arranged!