I've been looking for a program that simulates physics in 2D. I know there are plenty of them out there like Algodoo, but none of them that I've been able to find can simulate permanent magnets with a decent degree of accuracy & that the ones I have seen are mostly closed-source.
What I was hoping to do was to make a program that uses a genetic algorithm (much like http://boxcar2d.com (http://boxcar2d.com/)) to procedurally place bar & disc magnets of various dimensions, orientations, strengths & weights in rotationally-symmetrical locations around a free-spinning wheel & the stationary background. The program would try out millions of combinations on its own guiding the magnet placement until the wheel is self-spinning & with the fewest possible magnets.