![]() ![]() The Executive Board of the American Physical Society is concerned that in this period of unprecedented scientific advance, misguided or fraudulent claims of perpetual motion machines and other sources of unlimited free energy are proliferating. Robert Park, APS Director of Public Information and author of the weekly electronic newsletter “What’s New,” reported that the US Patent Office has received several patent applications for perpetual motion machines during the first six months of this year alone. The resolution was deemed necessary because of a recent increase in patent applications for such devices. Lesson plan Why don’t perpetual motion machines ever work? – Netta SchrammĪPS Resolution on Perpetual Motion Machines The APS (American Physical Society) Executive Board approved a resolution at its June 2002 meeting in Annapolis, MD, affirming the fraudulent nature of claims of perpetual motion machines. Why not? Netta Schramm describes the pitfalls of perpetual motion machines.” Animation by TED-Ed. There’s just one problem: they don’t work. Image from Videos Why don’t perpetual motion machines ever work? – Netta Schramm “Perpetual motion machines - devices that can do work indefinitely without any external energy source - have captured many inventors’ imaginations because they could totally transform our relationship with energy. Can you figure out how it is being faked? There are subtle clues in the video. This “perpetual motion machine” seems to use gravity and magnets to make a metal ball move forever. Looks cool, doesn’t it? Have you figured out why this won’t actually work? But when you let it run for a while, all the energy drains and then it shuts down. Anyone can do this – because power is not the same thing as energy! Sure, this device can temporally produce more power – as can any other device. Sounds awesome, right? Wrong – That just the sign of an engineer who doesn’t understand thermodynamics. The “motionless electromagnetic generator” Look at the numbers: putting out more power than is being put into it. The following outline is loosely based on the Perpetual motion machine article from Wikipedia, Perpetual motion (Wikipedia) A perpetual motion machine of the first kind Produces work without the input of energy? Violates the first law of thermodynamics! Here is one design that supposedly runs forever, and produces more energy than it consumes. ![]() One can classify these purported perpetual motion machines by the particular law of thermodynamics the machine purports to violate: The term is used loosely, in physics, in science fiction, in conspiracy theories, and in scams. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work indefinitely, without an energy source. ![]()
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