magnets and orbits

[Enola Straight]

Lets suppose you place a magnet in a high vaccuum, O g environment, and place a steel ball bearing around it.

Can the bb enter a stable orbit around the magnet as a function of magnetism like it would with a gravitational orbit?

[Vendetta]

Offhand, I would expect not, though it's been a long time sine I studied magnetism in enough depth to give a real answer.

Even if the magnet were magically fixed in position, because of the difference in shape between magnetic fields and gravitational fields, and the difference in strength between the forces, any orbit you could arrange would decay, there's also the way that the ball bearing would realign it's own magnetic polarity, destabilising its orbit further.

[AMX]

No.
Movement through the magnetic field will induce an electric current in the BB, which in turn generates a magnetic field opposed to the original field.
Which reduces the relative velocities.

That's how magnetic brakes work, BTW.