A linear synchronous motor (LSM) is an electric motor unrolled into a straight line: a travelling magnetic wave produced by a sequence of energised windings pulls a magnetised reaction element along with it, so that the element moves in step (“synchronously”) with the wave. Thrust is independent of speed up to the drive’s frequency limit, and the same windings can brake regeneratively by reversing the wave’s phase. The splinky realises an LSM with the guideway’s alternating ring poles as the magnetic track and the vehicle collar as the moving forcer, the synchronous speed being the drive frequency times the field wavelength.