A moving magnet motor with a stator comprising first and second spaced coil-wound cores that each have a width, the cores separated by an elongated gap, and an elongated magnet located at least in part in the gap and lying generally along a motor depth axis that is in the gap and is generally uniformly offset from the cores, where the magnet has poles. The motor has a width axis that is perpendicular to the depth axis and is generally uniformly offset from the cores. The magnet has a width along the motor width axis and the cores each have a width along the motor width axis. Along the motor depth axis the ratio of the width of the magnet or a pole of the magnet to the width of a core varies.