Well, ability to power something (efficiency > 1) wasn’t part of the working definition used in this thread here. But even so, a disc in space isn’t even an efficiency == 1 machine, ’cause space isn’t empty. It can be perpetually in motion on a human time scale, but on a stellar time scale it should stop (relative to what?) pretty quickly. I haven’t crunched the order of magnitudes, so don’t quote me on the time scales, but it will stop.
Of course, in all likelihood it will, by that time, be totally ablated by high-energy particles.
There are actually things in space that would cause it to stop. Random gasses, gravity, miscellaneous space junk, etc.
Well… Actually, yes and no. On the one hand, it would be a very long time before the disk is destroyed by running into something, but anyway, nature did that for us. See, thats kinda what solar systems and galaxies are. Just big spinning discs, that take a long time to stop. Anyway, the point of any perpetual motion machine is to create energy, which you’re disc (yes, even with magnets and wire) doesn’t really accomplish. Also, like the rest of the universe, it will stop spinning at heat death, or after being pulled into the black hole that will consume our galaxy. So, sleep well
Wouldn’t a water wheel be considered a perpetual motion machine?
Nope, remove the water and it stops. Perpetual motion machines require no outside source of motion.
Like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D9FcjTNaEk
Spin a disc in space. There you go. Unless something makes it stop, it’s not going to stop, so it’ll just keep on spinning until the end of time.
Okay, so how do you use it to power stuff? A generator would cause it to stop.
Well, ability to power something (efficiency > 1) wasn’t part of the working definition used in this thread here. But even so, a disc in space isn’t even an efficiency == 1 machine, ’cause space isn’t empty. It can be perpetually in motion on a human time scale, but on a stellar time scale it should stop (relative to what?) pretty quickly. I haven’t crunched the order of magnitudes, so don’t quote me on the time scales, but it will stop.
Of course, in all likelihood it will, by that time, be totally ablated by high-energy particles.
There are actually things in space that would cause it to stop. Random gasses, gravity, miscellaneous space junk, etc.
Really, it’d just be rather efficient.
You cannot extract work from the disk without making ir stop, so it does not qualify as a “machine”. See the definition of machine in Wikipedia.
Well… Actually, yes and no. On the one hand, it would be a very long time before the disk is destroyed by running into something, but anyway, nature did that for us. See, thats kinda what solar systems and galaxies are. Just big spinning discs, that take a long time to stop. Anyway, the point of any perpetual motion machine is to create energy, which you’re disc (yes, even with magnets and wire) doesn’t really accomplish. Also, like the rest of the universe, it will stop spinning at heat death, or after being pulled into the black hole that will consume our galaxy. So, sleep well
Still, it would spin for a while
Nice thing that Llewellyn did not turn Millie into charcoal for breaking those vases.
She saved him the effort of breaking them himself.