Is it possible to creat an engine using the repelling properties of magnets?

Question

I drew up some plans to use magnets to creat an engine of infinate power. The magnets will repel eachother in a circular motion and spin faster and faster. Is this possible? if not why?

Answer 1

without friction at all! (it is close to impossible) your theory might work, however, i think it is not gonna work because if it is an engine, u need to connect the spinning shaft to another shaft as output for your engine e.g tyres, fan, belt gears or anything. this will cause frictions and frictions is not good for ur theory dude. plus, energy will always be converted and they cannot stay ther forever.. it will lost somehow

Answer 2

No...magnets cannot be used to create energy by themselves. They can be used as an opposing magnetic field in a motor or a loud speaker, for instance, but it's the electrical current through the wire windings inside the device that produces the motion. Magnets possess potential energy which is introduced into the magnetic material by an outside source of energy - and if the like poles are close enough, this potential energy will indeed become kinetic energy. If magnets alone could create energy, a perpetual motion machine would soon be forthcoming.

Answer 3

Let's answer this with a not yet. If you would have asked a question of is it possible to go into outer space in the year 1940. The answer would have been NO! My uncle attempted to make a permanent magnet motor in the fifties He was unsuccessful. In the sixties the best method to do scientific calculations was a slide rule. In the seventies a computer cost more tha a large house. I was raised in a house with the telephone that had two parties on it. It rang one way for us and another way for our neighbor. Now almost everyone has a phone in their pocket. So I don't say anything is impossible. My Grandfather used to say that you can't get something for nothing. But a magnet gives off an energy in a static state. Invention is the ability to create as well as find. So dream on and good luck.

Answer 4

Magnetic energy, is a form of energy. We tend to be caught up in our beliefs of what is "perpetual motion' and what is not. While infinite power might be a bit difficult due to friction, load, and the size of the energizing magnets, I believe that using magnets configured so that they are constantly opposing would in fact work. This is the principal of an electric motor, so why do we need to use a source of DC or AC to make a motor operate when magnetic forces are being used to make the motor spin, to begin with. Why can we not just use magnets as is being suggested. I believe that it will work using all of the principals already worked out for a regular motor that uses some type of energizing current.

Answer 5

DJRJ - You have a very interesting idea. I spent a considerable amount of time a few years ago with this conception. I even constructed a small prototype to see if the idea would work in practice. After all, it's magnetic repulsion and attration that forces all electric motors to rotate.

I found two BIG obsticles to the plan.
One, there is no known way to turn a permanent magnet on and off - and, Two, there is no known, non-magnetic material that will block a magnetic field.
Magnetic shields only reroute the field trough the material of the shield, this definately weakens the forces between the magnets, but the addition of the magnets' attraction to the shield itself counteracts this desired effect.
It would be necessary to utilize the magnetic repulsion to cause the motor to start to spin - but then you have to realign the magnets in order to continue this action - and that would require an external energy source to overcome this repulsion in the opposite direction. The same is true, but opposite, if you utilize the attraction force of the magnets.

Despite my own dissappointment in my meager efforts, I still think a magnetic motor idea is very plausible. It doesn't violate any physical laws in theory, since you are not, in effect, 'creating energy' - you would simply be converting magnetic energy to rotory mechanical energy.

Unfortunately, it's another physical law that's the bugger - for every reaction, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Without some ingenious way to defeat this opposite reaction, the magnets will merely seek their lowest potential energy level and come to a very boring rest - without any further movement.

Note: I strongly suspect the magnets would retain their strength much longer if you used their attraction forces (unlike poles) rather than repulsion (like poles) - I think the repulsion would tend to significantly weaken the magnets after a period of time.

Answer 6

I don't know about using magnets, but the ultimate outcome that you are seeking is a self sustaining circuit correct? Yes...I have done it. Everytime I mention this on yahoo answers I get thumb downs. I made a very simple circuit that was self sustaining. It costs a lot of money to get to that point and I am currently waiting for more money to continue. Of course I needed a battery to get the ting going, but at the end I ran the circuit for 3 mintues and gained .47VDC on the battery, instead of losing voltage like all the other times, before the rig that I made broke. I need money to fix that rig and just haven't had the time. We are not talking about self levitation here. People shouldn't give up on these ideas just because of a theory. A theory cannot be proven or disproven.

Answer 7

I believe it's possible to create the engine, but friction will prevent this from becoming a machine of perpetual motion.

Answer 8

Infinite power is a dream. There such machines though that use magnets for motion and they are called electric motors.

Answer 9

First question. Yes an engine of that type is called a generator or motor.

2nd question. That won't work. Look up the Laws of thermodynamics.

Answer 10

no. it is called friction.