Perpetual Motion Machines?

Question

Would it be possible to create a perpetual motion machine by containing it in a vacuum. Also if the parts were completed smoothed over to be completely flat.

Answer 1

There are 3 types of perpetual motion machines, depending on which of the 3 Laws of Thermodynamics you break. And you can't break the Laws of Thermodynamics.

Law 1 - Nothing is free in this game
Law 2 - You cannot break even in this game
Law 3 - You cannot get out of the game

Answer 2

No. Perpetual motion is impossible because it violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Whenever work is performed, energy is lost in the form of heat. The entropy of the Universe is always increasing.

Answer 3

Let's say that based on our current understanding of how the universe works, perpetual motion machines don't seem possible. However, this is only based on what we think we know about thermodynamics. People couldn't successfully fly until they had a keen understanding of lift. So keep thinking!

Answer 4

Blue Sky's list of the 3 laws of thermo
have been written in the even shorter form
(especially #1):

1. You can't win.
2. You can't break even.
3. You can't quit the game.

Answer 5

Nope -- you will always have losses. You can never make a perfect vacuum, you cannot eliminate friction and all the other lossy things that come along with the world we live in.

Answer 6

No

If you mean "Could you spin an object and have it spin forever" Then Yes, but you could not get ANY useful work out of it without it slowing down.

Answer 7

Unless you can tap into the energy all around us that nobody realises is there yet, no.