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Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work indefinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible, since its existence would violate the first and/or second laws of thermodynamics. [2] [3] [4] [5]
An engraving of Robert Fludd's 1618 "water screw" perpetual motion machine. The history of perpetual motion machines dates at least back to the Middle Ages. For millennia, it was not clear whether perpetual motion devices were possible or not, but modern theories of thermodynamics have shown that they are impossible. Despite this, many attempts ...
Joseph Westley Newman (July 2, 1936 – March 6, 2015) was an American inventor and author who developed an "energy machine" which he attempted to patent, but was rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office on grounds of being a perpetual motion machine. He described this device in a book, The Energy Machine of Joseph Newman.
In 1979, Newman attempted to patent the device, but it was rejected by the United States Patent Office as being a perpetual motion machine. [1] When the rejection was later appealed, the United States district court requested that Newman's machine be tested by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS).
Example of a magnet motor design. The predominantly attracting orientation of the magnets apparently leads to a perpetual rotary motion. A hypothetical magnet motor works with permanent magnets in stator and rotor. By a special arrangement of the attracting and repelling poles, a rotational movement of the rotor is supposedly permanently ...
Charles Redheffer was an American inventor who claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine. First appearing in Philadelphia, Redheffer exhibited his machine to the public, charging high prices for viewing. When he applied to the government for more money, a group of inspectors were sent to examine the machine.
[1] [2] Devices allegedly suppressed include perpetual motion machines, cold fusion generators, torus-based generators, reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology, anti-gravity propulsion systems, and other generally unproven or physically impossible, low-cost energy sources. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Schematic figure of a Brownian ratchet. In the philosophy of thermal and statistical physics, the Brownian ratchet or Feynman–Smoluchowski ratchet is an apparent perpetual motion machine of the second kind (converting thermal energy into mechanical work), first analysed in 1912 as a thought experiment by Polish physicist Marian Smoluchowski. [1]