Is a machine still a Perpetual Motion one if you have to "start it". I mean only once until you actual stop it. Like if it was a car that you had to start, but after that it just kept going and going, like that energizer bunny?
2006-11-01 14:08:20 · 8 answers · asked by esage321 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Yes, if you started this machine, and it kept going indefinitely, you would have a true perpetual motion machine.
Do not ever let the "laws" of physics or any other science prevent you from investigating phenomenon for your own curiosity.
It wasn't that many years ago that engineers pretty much decided that a bumble bee couldn't fly. Neither they nor the bumble bee knew anything about the effects vortexes have on air pressures - and the bumble just kept flying around anyway.
Present laws of physics prohibit a perpetual motion machine - but who knows what discoveries will be made in the future - and they well could be made by someone who challenges these laws by looking at the problem from a different perspective.
2006-11-01 14:36:29 · answer #1 · answered by LeAnne 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Perpetual motion is Something that can power it's self with out using any power source. If you started the machine and it ran in till the end of time with no help then yes, Unfortunately the laws of physics Say's differently, Simply put the first law of thermodynamics will tell you all you need to know about perpetual motion.
2006-11-01 14:23:23 · answer #2 · answered by matt v 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
As long as it had no energy source to continue powering it, it would be a perpetual motion machine. If it's still winding down from the starting, then no.
That said, perpetual motion machines are impossible under the laws of physics. Check out the first law of thermodynamics.
2006-11-01 14:16:05 · answer #3 · answered by eri 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes it would be a perpetual motion machine if once started it never stopped. There is no way to prove that something is a perpetual motion machine as time never ends.
2006-11-01 14:10:47 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, giving it the initial "spin up" etc would be perfectly allowable.
As for people saying it will never happen - it depends a *tiny* bit on interpretation. If your "machine" was for example a spinning disk that did something useful (eg: interrupting a beam of light) and this disk was set spinning in far space, it is difficult to know what would ever slow it down - zero friction or any other forces acting upon it.
2006-11-01 14:17:00 · answer #5 · answered by Mark T 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends upon what you think of as a machine.
A satellite would orbit indefinitely unless outside forces act on it to slow it down.
An electron might orbit its nucleus indefinately.
These are examples of possible perpetual motion, providing no energy is extracted from them (there's the big thermodynamic law catch)
2006-11-01 15:00:26 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is a perpetual motion machine what you say. But, because of friction this is said to be impossible. Maybe in a space vacuum it may be possible, I really not sure.
2006-11-01 14:18:33 · answer #7 · answered by Snaglefritz 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.
If there were such a thing it would truly be a pm machine. But it will never happen. The laws of physics prevent it.
2006-11-01 14:10:53 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋