I suppose I really ought to say something about the "demonstration" of Steorn's perpetual motion machine that's supposed to start today, but, really, I don't have much to say. I mean, if they were claiming that their device extracted free energy from extra dimensions thanks to their revolutionary new theory of quantum gravity, I might need to think about it for a few seconds before dismissing it as crap, but that's not their claim:
Orbo is based upon the principle of time variant magneto-mechanical interactions. The core output from our Orbo technology is mechanical. This mechanical energy can be converted into electrical energy using standard generator technology either by integrating such technology directly with Orbo or by connecting the mechanical output from Orbo to the generation technology. The efficiency of such mechanical/electrical conversions is highly dependent on the components used and is also a function of size.
You know, I'm just not seeing a whole lot of unexplored loopholes in Maxwell's Equations. We've got E & M nailed down pretty well, and if there were time varying effects of the sort required to violate energy conservation, somebody would've noticed them in the last hundred and fifty years.
I have the utmost respect for people like Bob Park and James Randi, but I don't understand how they can do what they do. I just don't have the mental energy to expend on this sort of nonsense, but those two are absolutely tireless in running down cranks and kooks and charlatans. Me, I can't even muster the energy to do bloggy debunkings. Happily, I don't need to-- Joe Fitzsimons and Orac have it pretty well covered.
So let me just do what I do well, and throw in a flippant reference to genre literature. In Geoffrey Landis's excellent spoof "What We Really Do Here at NASA" (which isn't available online, but is in this collection) there's a bit where the narrator goes past the room of perpetual motion machines. He notes in passing that they're easier to build than you might think, but they wouldn't really be perpetual motion machines if you could turn them off, now would they?
Given that Steorn can't even get their machine started, I'm going to guess that their device doesn't meet the Landis Criterion...
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1) Time is homogeneous.
2) Noether's theorem.
3) Mass-energy is locally conserved.
Circuit boards work because small errors average in electronics. Controlled nuclear fusion fails because small errors add in magnetohydrodynamics.
As stated for Orbo, the solution to both is to build them bigger. Pity that the sun is rather messy and Eta Carinae is no less messy. BIGGER!
Diamond has negative electron affinity into vacuum. An Over Unity! diode array, anodes paved with conductive boron-doped Type IIb CVD diamond in vacuum, are just the way to go. Over Unity! diodes run in brightly lit warm rooms.
Diamond and Related Materials 15(11-12) 2082 (2006)
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v53/i12/pR7650_1
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v50/i8/p5803_1
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005ApPhL..86o2103T
Well, at least the Quack Macnine is still working nicely I see...
I guess I've hit the big time now that I've been linked to off your blog. Thanks!
To answer Mr. Orzel, Bob Park and I keep after the scame artists because they waste young lives, attract and absorb fortunes in federal and private money, and generally bring about grief and loss. If you saw someone struck down by a passing car, wouldn't you at least try to summon appropriate help - or would you choose to pass by and ignore the situation? Bob has the science, I have the expertise in fraud. We work for the same goal, from different directions...
James Randi writes: To answer Mr. Orzel, Bob Park and I keep after the scame artists because they waste young lives, attract and absorb fortunes in federal and private money, and generally bring about grief and loss.
I absolutely understand why you do it, I just don't understand how you can keep it up. I would've burned out a long, long time ago. The pool of idiocy appears to be bottomless, and the scam artists don't even have the decency to stay down once they've been exposed-- I see Uri Geller has a web site, and is hawking God knows what.
I'm exhausted just watching you and Bob Park. I admire you guys for your stamina and dedication.
would a perfect orbit be perpetual?
Sorry to burst your bubble prof, but on the 14th of dec 2007 a patent for a fully tested device, bent the laws of thermodynamics over like a pig in a redneck barn, It wasn't perpetual motion but nonetheless it was done, a copy of the patent app can be downloaded from the above page. But here's the real kicker, the same inventor now proven to have the smarts to kick newton's butt has another surprise coming. You're really gunna love this, and you'll note no negative feedback on the device patent attached, coz everyone who even has a base physics knowledge was able to verify it in math without even having to build it, not to mention many of the top researchers in the field of energy are dumfounded it was so simple, yet undeniably works.
The Eskimo
Re #6: "would a perfect orbit be perpetual?"
Not in our universe. The system slowly radiates away gravitational radiation, which removes angular momentum from the orbiting objects.
By the way, electrical current going around and around in a superconducting loop of metal is not perpetual either.
In both cases, our short-term obervations are not sufficiently precise to see the deeper Physics at work.
Re: #7 Google this phrase: "reduction to practice"