title: Weird iPython Notebook figure size behavior
body: <p>I'm seeing a strange effect in iPython Notebook that I don't understand. If I place the following code in a singe cell and run it twice, both times the figure will be plotted with my custom figure size specification.</p>
  
  <pre><code>%matplotlib inline
  import matplotlib
  matplotlib.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = (8,6)
  import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  plt.plot([0,1],[1,2])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now if I create a file called <code>set_figsize.py</code> that contains the following lines:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import matplotlib
  matplotlib.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = (8.0, 6.0)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and start a new notebook with the following in a single cell:</p>
  
  <pre><code>%matplotlib inline
  import set_figsize
  import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  plt.plot([0,1],[1,2])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and run that twice, the first time the figure is plotted with my custom figure size, and the second time it's back to the smaller default size. If I place <code>%matplotlib inline</code> in an individual cell and only run that once, my custom figure size remains in place. So it seems like every time I run <code>%matplotlib inline</code> the figure size is set to the default, but running <code>import set_figsize</code> only takes effect the first time I run it. Why does this happen?</p>