Why dont we use pendulums to produce energy?

Question

I was thinking that if we attach some sort of gears on the top of the pendulum line, it would be able to produce motion and ultimately we could draw energy from it. This would also be able to be done regardless of weather or sunlight.

Sound good to me, but why dont we do it, or hear about it?

Yes, I knew what they proved, and how they work, but I just thought that the constant motion could create energy especially since its 24/7 motion.

any other thoughts? or should I patent it? lol

Alright, thanks.
I thought that Pendulums swung because we are moving and they arent due to the spinning earth. so i thought that since basically the earth is producing that energy, we could draw it from it... i guess i was wrong...
thanks!

Answer 1

Focault's pendulum sways back and forth due to the rotation of the earth. (Actually, it's one way they proved that the earth rotates.) I doubt, however, that you could generate enough energy from a swinging ball.

*CORRECTION* Focault's pendulum requires energy to start it swinging. So, you have to put energy into the pendulum to get it going. That sounds counterproductive if you want to generate energy.

Answer 2

It won't work because of the principle of conservation of energy.

Say you have your pendulum-generator set up, and you pull the pendulum off to the side, and you let it swing. It does indeed have energy in it, and it can indeed transfer some of that energy to the gear mechanism. However, the conservation principle says that whatever energy goes _into_ the gear box, must go _out_of_ the pendulum; that is the pendulum will have lost a little bit of energy. That means it will swing a little bit more slowly than it would have otherwise; and it means it won't climb quite as high at the end of its swing as it was when it started.

Basically, the pendulum would run down, and eventually stop, as all of the energy it initially contained gets transferred into the gear box.

The reason that clock pendulums swing for such a long time is that energy is actually being continually pumped _into_ them (rather than being sucked out of them as you propose). The energy source for a pendulum clock may be in a wound spring, or in some heavy weights that (very gradually) drop; or even in an electric motor. Whatever the energy source, it's connected to the pendulum in such a way that it gives a little "kick" to the pendulum each time it swings; and that keeps the pendulum from slowing to a stop. As soon as that external energy source goes away (for example when the spring winds down), the pendulum ticks a few more times and then comes to a halt.

Answer 3

There's a certain amount of gravitational energy stored in a swinging pendulum - actually easily computed, if you have a bob with mass m and a maximum height difference h between its lowest and highest points, the energy is mgh (where g= 9.8m/s^2). You can get no more energy than this out of a swinging pendulum. It is not an energy source. It might be used for energy storage, but it's not a very good method.

Answer 4

Because all pendulums stops moving eventually because they don´t produce energy. They consume energy. Where would the energy be added? Add gears and the kinetic energy of the pendulum is just lost sooner.

Answer 5

Because pendulums always slow down due to friction and gravity, so you have to put energy IN to them just to keep them going. It would probably work for a little while, but then you'd have to lift them back up again and start all over.

Plus you'd need a fairly large mass to get any decent amount of energy, which would take a lot of energy to lift back up and restart.

Answer 6

You're trying to create energy, which can't be done.

If you were to attach gears to the pendulum, after starting it, it would eventually stop moving because of the resistance (however slight) from the gears.

Answer 7

an exciting concept, however the subject is that in case you heavily examined the area you will possibly locate the capability that makes the twine pass on the best is the absolute capability required to pass the full twine, so which you're no longer particularly producing any capability. the backside strikes quicker than the best with the aid of fact it particularly is further removed from the axis of rotation, yet no capability is produced interior the area. (nicely particularly what you're doing once you progression the twine first of all is popping ability capability with the aid of mass and gravity into kenetic capability, then with the aid of fact the twine swings, it loses kenetic capability that is going back to being ability capability... and so on with the aid of fact the twine swings back and forth). it particularly is often sturdy to think of approximately and question issues like that although!