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Historic Event Tonight?
Xiaou2:
Yet this was found on the page listed:
"In 1996 the ball finally kept moving! This newspaper picture was shot when the machine ran for 6 weeks. And so is it running ever since, with some maintenance now and then. Maintenance: 1) cleaning the track. 2) Redo the resin fix of the magnet array in the base. "
As I said, inconsistent data.
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on February 10, 2010, 12:58:32 am ---Yet this was found on the page listed:
"In 1996 the ball finally kept moving! This newspaper picture was shot when the machine ran for 6 weeks. And so is it running ever since, with some maintenance now and then. Maintenance: 1) cleaning the track. 2) Redo the resin fix of the magnet array in the base. "
As I said, inconsistent data.
--- End quote ---
Sometimes artists say that a painting starts off with a perfectly clean, white canvas. The very first brush stroke makes it not perfect anymore, and every other brush stroke that follows is an attempt to make it as perfect as it used to be. I know i bang on about flywheels all the time, but all these attempts at perpetual motion (at least where there is mechanical action involved) are akin to the artists attempt to get back to the perfect canvas. The perfect canvas in this case is the humble flywheel. Everything else on this flywheel is superfluous. And like i say, the flywheel itself isn't a perpetual motion device. But it's the closest mechanical thing.
Think of it this way. If you put a disk in space, and spun it, what would happen? It would spin. And spin, and spin. It would seemingly do this forever thus fitting the idea of perpetual motion. But it won't spin forever. Even in space there are things that will collide with it, thus causing friction. Space dust for instance. Cosmic rays i don't think would have any effect, but over a long period of time, maybe other radiation could have an effect not dissimilar to spinning in air. Anyway, regular old dust and larger objects would slow it down over time. No idea of the scale, thousands of years? Millions? Still not perpetual motion. If it were though, you can't do anything with it, tapping into its spin will slow it down.
Now take that beautiful pendulum and put it into space with our spinning disk. They can have a sort of 'race'. Which would spin longer? The disk, with it's single moving part and no friction (not even a bearing, just set it spinning) or the pendulum, with it's hundreds of parts, each which takes energy to overcome the friction it inevitably creates?
shmokes:
Your problem, Danny, if that is your real name, is that you just don't want to believe badly enough. :)
RayB:
Hey Danny, you were saying something about flywheels?
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/02/13/020209/Porsche-Unveils-911-Hybrid-With-Flywheel-Booster
RayB:
Sorry to revive this thread again, but after a couple months of quiet since their "show" ended, they decided to issue their latest press release announcing the official opening of their developer program. Yesterday was April 1.
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