It is widely believed that globular clusters evolve over many two-body relaxation times toward a state of energy equipartition , so that velocity dispersion scales with stellar mass as \sigma \propto m ^ { - \eta } with \eta = 0.5 . We show here that this is incorrect , using a suite of direct N-body simulations with a variety of realistic IMFs and initial conditions . No simulated system ever reaches a state close to equipartition . Near the center , the luminous main-sequence stars reach a maximum \eta _ { max } \approx 0.15 \pm 0.03 . At large times , all radial bins convergence on an asymptotic value \eta _ { \infty } \approx 0.08 \pm 0.02 . The development of this “ partial equipartition ” is strikingly similar across our simulations , despite the range of different initial conditions employed . Compact remnants tend to have higher \eta than main-sequence stars ( but still \eta < 0.5 ) , due to their steeper ( evolved ) mass function . The presence of an intermediate-mass black hole ( IMBH ) decreases \eta , consistent with our previous findings of a quenching of mass segregation under these conditions . All these results can be understood as a consequence of the Spitzer instability for two-component systems , extended by Vishniac to a continuous mass spectrum . Mass segregation ( the tendency of heavier stars to sink toward the core ) has often been studied observationally , but energy equipartition has not . Due to the advent of high-quality proper motion datasets from the Hubble Space Telescope , it is now possible to measure \eta for real clusters . Detailed data-model comparisons open up a new observational window on globular cluster dynamics and evolution . A first comparison of our simulations to observations of Omega Cen yields good agreement , supporting the view that globular clusters are not generally in energy equipartition . Modeling techniques that assume equipartition by construction ( e.g. , multi-mass Michie-King models ) are approximate at best .