Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Perpetual machine

As a child, my idea of perpetual machine is connecting the shafts of an electric generator and electric motor, which are also connected electrically to make complete loop for flow of energy, but it took me some time to realize that things are not perfect. In my 10th grade I learnt about eddy currents which made my perpetual machine no more perpetual with time I learnt that they are many other factors which make my setup lesser and lesser perpetual... Bhaskara II in 12th century introduced this concept after this many mathematicians and physicists came up with many designs but with no success. Even though some of these designs (like drinking bird, Crookes radiometer etc) may appears to be perpetual but they are not truly perpetual they consume some sort of natural energy like temperature gradients, phase changes of water or other fluids etc. Recently a company named Steorn claimed to have built a perpetual machine but their public demo was a failure.

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