Unbeliever

I thought some of you might find this at least a bit entertaining: Alleged Creation of Perpetual Energy Source Splits Scientific CommunityWhat do I know? Maybe they've got something here! At least it sounds good.

Nataraja

I think that true perpetual motion is theoretically possible but remarkably useless. A perpetual energy supply is, indeed, quite impossible. Energy has to come from somewhere.

On the other hand, if this works in practice, it is indeed quite remarkable. Of course, the energy still has to come from somewhere.

liquid

A perfectly efficient engine isn't only practically impossible, it's theoretically impossible too.

The theoretical limit for engine efficiency is the called the Carnot engine (based on the Carnot cycle). IIRC, it has an efficiency of about 78%.

ps418

I wouldn't bet the house on the accuracy of anything written in the Pravda.

Patrick

Unbeliever

Hell, I wouldn't bet the house on the accuracy of anything written in the New York Times!

NialScorva

I believe this only applies to heat engines. Electric engines can be more efficient. I believe that most are more efficient, if you ignore your production of electricity and just measure from "I have current" to "I have movement".

ImGod

Free energy is easy. Just bury a extra line to the neigbhorhood junction box/transformer and tie into several other house supplies so nobody gets hit enough to notice they are supplying your power.

Wait. That's illegal and dangerous, don't do it. Instead get people to send you money for free energy plans and buy your electricity. That's just sort of maybe illegal depending on interpretation of the law.

Kevbo

There have been better engines designed since Carnot was around. There are some more efficient engines that utilize things like quantum afterburners and laser light to squeeze out even more work.

NialScorva

Just plug an inductor into a random wall outlet, but make sure you tune it so you don't feed too much imaginary current back onto the lines. Utilities don't like to see your meter running backwards, and they like having their transformers blow up even less.

Worldtraveller

Here's another. http://www.rense.com/general21/free.htm
I have downloaded the paper and will try and review it for technical content (69 pgs). I'm sure it will require a bit of extra research to try and make sense out of it though.
A couple of interesting notes. According to the web site, the first units should be available around March 2003....??
Also, the basis for the free energy is what they call transverse electromagnetic waves (I need to do some research) and the 'formula' for the energy is: E = delta t*c^2, where c is the speed of light. However, just doing a unit analysis on this yields m^2/s...which is not energy. There should be a mass term in there somewhere.
From basic physics, W(ork) = E(nergy)= force*distance
force=mass*acceleration(Newton's second Law),
so E=mass*acceleration*distance (in SI units = kg*m^2/s^2)
So based just on that, I'm pretty skeptical.
And the press releases read like some xtian tent revivals!