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So a few years ago I came up with the idea of a magneticly powered wheel that could be attached to a generator and power it, it would not be infinite as over time magnets lose their power yet I think it could work. It uses some bar magnets, some 3d printed parts, an axle, a bearing (if its not attached to a generator) and some magnetic shielding material (like the stuff on this link: http://www.lessemf.com/mag-shld.html#273)

The way it works is its effectively a circle with a bunch of bar magnets attached to it with their northern poles pointing towards the circle's centre and their southern poles pointing away from the centre of the circle, some magnetic shielding material is then used to cover the left side of the northern poles of these magnets. Then the bearing is placed in the centre of the circle and some more bar magnets attached to the axle, more magnetic shielding material is used to cover these bar magnets apart from their very ends, the axle is then inserted into the bearing. At this point I am unsure if it will do any of these three things:

  1. The axle spins into life, accelerating so quickly that the whole mechanism shatters and pieces go flying everywhere.

  2. The wheel does not immediately start spinning but when I give it a nudge it once again spins into life and shatters.

  3. Nothing happens

I am wondering what you all think about the possibility of this and potential problems it may have (apart from things like air resistance).

Qmechanic
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James Jury
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1 Answers1

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your question is a common one and has popped up over and over again in the arena of physics. these days it usually results in a youtube video and a bunch of associated conspiracy theories, but as is always the case, the way the universe actually works prohibits any such machine from operating- no matter how badly we might like it to. So the correct answer is #3: nothing will happen. Here is why:

Because of the manner in which a magnetic field from a permanent magnet propagates into space, there is no way possible for one magnet to "sneak up" on another and then suddenly attract or repel it- thereby setting it up to do the same to the next magnet in line, etc., etc. and thereby setting into motion a "motor" that is propelled by the "magnetic energy" contained in the permanent magnets.

Mathematically, this can be expressed by asserting that the divergence of the magnetic field is zero- an experimental fact established through many years of careful experiment, and succinctly expressed in one of Maxwell's famous equations. This definitively rules out any such "motor", regardless of what might be claimed to the contrary in a youtube video about "free energy" or "over-unity" machines.

The validity of this equation means that any claim to the contrary can be dismissed out of hand without further discussion. Physicists know this, but self-taught inventors with machine tools and video cameras do not, and frequently convince themselves that if they just buy the right bearings and exactly the right magnets and machine the rotor in exactly the right way, then the machine will work and we'll have free energy for everybody, forever.

But they are wrong, and are wasting their time.

niels nielsen
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