Repeated the magnetic levitation of pencil carbon that was shown on youtube.

I think the lateral stability with superconductors comes from a resistance to motion caused by what would be (in principle) and infinite induced charge. The mag field appears expelled because there is a mirror induced in the superconductor

sequence,

How do you keep the magnets together? Do they naturally stick or do you need glue?

On a sunny day (Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:21:05 +0100) it happened Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote in :

sequence,

The magnets are arranged like this, top view: NSNSNSNS SNSNSNSN NSNSNSNS

This is fun, a cube has six sides. Now only one side is N or S pole. So with 1 magnet, the first one, the chances of doing it right (get a N on top), is one out of 6. With 2 magnets to do it right one out of 36, with n magnets n^6, so here 32^6 =

On the more practical side, the magnets, if let lose, will snap together like a string, all with N/S aligned like this: NS NS NS NS NS

Now take one of the string at a time, not important which one is N or S, but make sure you have that side of the cube face up. Take the next one, and make sure you have that side of the cube faced down. While doing this one by one, you will feel some attraction from the ever growing main pack to where the correct position is. And it will repel where the same pole is. Be very careful, because if you get in a hurry the whole thing will snap up together, and form a NS NS NS thread again.

No glue required, just patience.