The forces acting on a superconducting body in a magnetic field may be obtained by analogy with hydro‐dynamics, considering the similarity of the force field around a perfect diamagnetic with the flow field of an ideal liquid past an impermeable body of the same shape. The translation is provided by replacing ½&rgr;v2by (⅛&pgr;)&mgr;H2. As a practical application of the repulsive forces acting on superconductors in a diverging magnetic field, design of two types of magnetic supports for a sphere is described. In the coil‐type support, two coils with opposed currents are necessary to provide stable equilibrium. Similarly, the permanent‐magnet‐type support requires two transversely magnetized rings with opposed polarity. The dissipation of energy in a rotating sphere by eddy currents and by viscous drag of the surrounding gas was studied. The nonexistence of any torque on a freefloating, superconducting sphere in a rotating, transverse field indicates absence of interaction between the superconducting electrons and the metallic lattice.