2006-09-27 05:46:08 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Perpetual energy unfortunately violates the Laws of Thermodynamics (three-year-olds excepted of course).
2006-09-27 06:07:08 · answer #1 · answered by Deep Thought 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You mean aside from squirrels in spring time, or a three-year-old running around the house? Read below...
I remember something that happened many years ago, (when I was in 5th grade):
In a neighboring state (MS) there was this self-described "backyard inventor" who claimed to have developed a "perpetual motion engine." (He said is wasn't 100% perpetual, more like in the 90% range.) Anyway... One day he invited the local TV stations & engineers to come by while he demonstrated his invention. The engineers made some strange comment that "it looked promising." He was scheduled to put on another demonstration at NASA, but he was killed in a rather too convenient house fire and all his notes were never found. And the engineers had seen them, so the notes did exist.
Now the real question is: Why was he murdered if the big oil & power companies had/have nothing to hide? Make of this what you will...
Do I personally think it's possible? Well, to some degree. The system may not be perfect (100% on the energy put in is also put out in such a manner that the system will feed itself) but I think you can invent/create a system that will come close.
2006-09-27 12:53:52 · answer #2 · answered by pinduck85 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nope.
One would need to violate all sorts of laws of physics for perpetual motion to work.
When a body is in motion, something had to put it into motion. That something is force and force requires the expenditure of energy, which is energy lost to future applications of work.
When a body is in motion, that motion is acted on by forces that want to stop that motion. The kind of forces depends on the context of the body in motion. In the near perfect vacuum of outer space, for example, gravity is everywhere pulling on bodies in motion...sometimes to accelerate them, but often to slow them down.
On Earth, gravity, friction, drag, electro-magnetic, and other forces are constantly tugging or pushing at moving bodies to slow them down. As that happens, more energy (forces) have to put into a body to keep it going. It is not perpetual, because eventually there will be no more additional energy to put into that body. This results because the universe is running down...it is losing useful energy every second of its being.
Science has gotten us to a point where very little additional energy is needed to keep some precision things going for a very long time; but they are not perpetual, even they need a bit of boost now and then.
2006-09-27 13:36:06 · answer #3 · answered by oldprof 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
yes, the Earth is in perpetual motion.. the stars are in perpetual motion.. a better question might be "will anything ever stop?" :)
2006-09-27 12:48:09 · answer #4 · answered by Byakuya 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
no, violates laws of thermodynamics
2006-09-27 23:33:32 · answer #5 · answered by tomz17 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋