PHYSICISTS! I Can you make a motor using permanent magnets? Doesn't it break the law of conservation energy?

Question

I saw this on you tube. Where is the energy coming from??????? And if this is real why can't we use this for cars???? I think that they have some guy with an electric motor hooked up to it.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvHb41KP7To
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFGiWiXMHn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHffliC2whk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCr3lOhMJCg

Answer 1

I watched all the videos.

In the first video, the demonstrator spins the device and claims that it will spin forever. It's not very credible.

In the second video, you can't see entire machine, but in a different video with the same machine, the demonstrator spins the device and it goes for a while and then he spins it some more to keep it going. No energy being generated there.

In the final two videos, the demonstrator gets the wheel to spin by pushing and pulling a magnet near the wheel. When he stops moving the magnet, the wheel slows down and eventually stops. Sorry, no motor here either.

The moral of the story is this: you can't make a motor out of permanent magnets.

Answer 2

There is some truth to what is being told, but for the time being these people generally are mis-calculating. Like above answers, you cannot put more energy out than what you put in, HOWEVER, I do believe that this is the beginning of super efficient motors. Magnetism has been relatively un-experimented compared to other forms of science and I think there is much we can learn and adapt to.
To have an engine run solely on magnets would be far fetched for this generation. Static magnets will lose there charge (in less than 4 hundred years) if they are constantly being used. The polarity of one will eventually balance out the other side and all magnets will have to be replaced.
The videos you see all seem fantastic because NONE of them are performing any work. The big motor seemed very interesting but I wonder why his demonstration showed only the motor turning without it outputting any power. If I presented you with a car engine and no car and just said "Hey look it runs" you're reaction would probably be "uhh, ya so what! What can it do!?" When these people realease videos of these motors performing work (lighting lightbulbs, moving vehicles etc.) I will be much more impressed.
I cant stress enough though, I applaud all efforts being made to study this, there is some underlying property of magnetism that will change the world when we can use it properly. We just are not there yet.

As for the cars, Hybrid and electric vehicles use very similar technologies as you saw in these clips. The trouble is the amount of mass you have to move in a vehicle is so large compared to the amount of power you obtain from a static magnet motor, the motor would have to be larger than the car which would ultimately add more weight to an already heavy vehicle.

Great question

Answer 3

Of course you can, if you have a rotating wire near it. I didn't watch the videos, cause my net is shaped, so it's going slower than a dead penguin riding a drunk snail.
Windmills, hydroelectric plants and normal turbines use the same principal - having the wire rotate (or magnets rotating around the wire) makes electrons move, acording to the formula F=BILsin(theta). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it_Z7NdKgmY)
It is being used in cars - google "tesla roadster". It hasn't bene used yet, due to oil still being easily available, and a lack of efficient electric cars (though a good number of bribes were most likely the cause of some good electric cars being recalled, or never created)

Answer 4

First video is not clear, but in the seond video, energy is coming from the to and fro movement of the hands.
It is impossible to get energy without speding it in some other form. If energy can be craeted out of nothing, thermodynamics will have to be rewritten. Present thermodynamics will then reduce to a fiction story.

Answer 5

Looking at the videos... What their talking about is true... you can get stuff to move with magnets... But considering getting a car to move with just this force... I'm not so sure... What they have gotten to move is basically paper and not much more...

Now, in the future we might see something with supermagnets propelling large trains (in advancemnt) but the supermagents still need electricity..

Answer 6

electric motors do use permanent magnets, but you can't get more energy out than you put in. this has been carefully checked in thousands of laboratories worldwide. either they are doing some 'creative accounting' or they are simply victims of wishful thinking.