Not only does it have a wonderful history of failed inventions, schemes, scammers and blaggards it also has the potential to provide free and clean energy forever.
I find it all very intriguing, what with Len’s law now having been overcome, its looking like a real possibility?
Mr Nutt, I am worried that you are losing the attributes of your namesake. What are you going on about? Do you mean Lenz’s Law? Conservation of momentum? Overcome? What? Explain with links..
I have a perpetual motion device that works in my garage. Trouble is I’m scared I’ll get bumped off if it goes public. You can buy it off me if you like for 10 million quid.
Science is the art of the soluble, MrNutt, according to Peter Medawar. It’s a great quote, because it helps you discriminate between truly interesting and important problems in science, and ones that just appear interesting on the surface. Perpetual motion is an example of the latter, it’s barely even that tbh. Origin of life studies are another example – a minority of brilliant work but a majority of pish that lacks the art of the soluble.
Question: if perpetual motion is possible, aren’t we doomed to a world of rapidly increasing temperatures and general suchnsuch? As in, the motion/ slowing it causes heat; the motion never stops, so it’s a never-ending source of heat. Do it on a big enough scale and watch it all go pear-shaped…
As a chappy working in engineering in a university I’ve so far signed 3 NDA’s to look at (quite well qualified people’s) ideas for perpetual motion machines in the last 2 years. All of which could be blown out o the water in 5 mins with some quick calculations and common sense. I don’t see it happening any time soon.
When I was 7 or 8 I went to bed with a pad and pencil and invented a perpetual motion vehicle (big metal object at the front and bloody great magnet at the back) and went to sleep happy in the knowledge I had solved a major world problem so easily. I woke up in the morning, took one look at my sketch and realised I was an imbecile and would have to satisfy myself with a life of mediocrity. Probably one of the most depressing moments of my life.
I was once at a technical conference in Edinburgh Uni where an engineering student stood up and asked if there were better ways of recovering energy in a vehicle (than solar panels on the roof) “such as placing a large wind turbine on the roof”. There was a large intake of breath and a the mutterings of dissappointment spread throughout the room. The student, clearly aware of the growing unrest around him said “I’m just one man in one minute and I can come up with something like that, if lots of us think about it…”. I’m amazed the speaker didn’t even break into a grin, he carried on very professionally.
When I was 7 or 8 I went to bed with a pad and pencil and invented a perpetual motion vehicle (big metal object at the front and bloody great magnet at the back) and went to sleep happy in the knowledge I had solved a major world problem so easily. I woke up in the morning, took one look at my sketch and realised I was an imbecile and would have to satisfy myself with a life of mediocrity. Probably one of the most depressing moments of my life.
Weirdly enough I went through the same thing with a MAGLEV train I’d designed. I thought I was a genius. The Germans and the Japanese thought I was forty years too late.
Actually, there is something to think about here. Perpetual motion is clearly nonsensical since where does the extra energy come from? Even if you had perfect bearings in a vacuum and made a machine spin indefinitely, the moment you try and draw any work from it it’ll slow down.
The real question is about converting energy from somewhere that’s either a) not obvious b) currently unknown or c) readily available and free/really cheap.
Nuclear fusion would come under c) but would have been in categories a) and b) 100 years ago.
What about a piezoelectric motor sat on a car engine? To capture the wasted vibrational energy of the car.
You could then use the motor to power a little smiley face that lights up on the dashboard. It might quieten down the car a bit too.
