The Lorentz force is just the force due to electricity and/or magnetism. I’ve no idea why it’s not in your dictionary, as it’s fairly standard terminology.
Scott Dickerson
Problem is (see again here) Halbach arrays are strong but have alternating polarity as you go along the array. If you put two adjacent, they’ll just slip sideways and go “g-thunk” and stick together. Really, really, really … although it may be highly counter-intuitive … Earnshaw disproves the possibility of static levitation using permanent magnets. Whatever weird arrangements you might try to put together, they are still combinations of inverse-square (magnetic and gravitational) effects, and so won’t work.
OK, raygirvan…
but I plan to ask God to alter this rule!
God ought to; it’s very disappointing! However, there are enough getouts to be interesting and useful. I’m blown away by spin-stabilisation (i.e. Levitron), Halbach arrays and Inductrack, and I’m sure there will be cool future developments in maglev.