More Bizarre Attempts at Perpetual Motion Machines

Explore the weirdest attempts at creating perpetual motion machines, from quirky toys like the Drinking Bird to misguided inventions claiming divine power. Find out what really keeps these contraptions moving!
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[@etunimenisukunimeni1302]

There's that old saying: the hardest part of inventing a perpetual motion machine is to figure out where to hide the batteries

[@beginnereasy]

It's irrelevant

[@AGnorTheChannel]

​@@beginnereasy considering the multiple mentions of batteries in this video and that no one has yet actually invented such a machine as far as we're aware, it's entirely relevant.

[@samuelgarrod8327]

That's the first time I've ever heard it so it's not old.

[@DecrepitBiden]

The duality of the irrelevant makes it relevant

[@Doi-]

​@@beginnereasysays the man with a real irrelevant statement.

[@agalah408]

"Lisa! In this house we OBEY the laws of thermodynamics"

[@UnionYes1021]

And you don’t want to have to pay the fine that comes with breaking the third law!

[@jeanaprewitt9658]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own!"

[@bioLarzen]

"Physics - it's not just a fancy idea, it's the law." ;)

[@tturi2]

enforced by the second law

[@kimcheelove]

this perpetual motion device just keeps going faster and faster!

[@Joseph-z7s3b]

Perpetual motion exists. It's Simon moving from channel to channel and subject to subject. Good God Simon. Don't just do something. Sit there.

[@williestyle35]

As a matter of fact, Simon was wearing this exact same outfit in another video I saw on a different one of his channels', two days ago. lol He must film nearly a dozen or so of these at a time...

[@michaelhowell2326]

Solid comment.

[@murrayscott9546]

Batteries not included.

[@MSjackiesaunders]

😅😅😅

[@MSjackiesaunders]

​@@williestyle35 he is known for being parsimonious with his clothing budget.

[@johnlewan1114]

Up next, 50 channels you didn't know Simon narrates.

[@CoPoint]

...part 1, beginning of a LONG series 😁...

[@MindBodySoulOk]

Fascinating eggskull however

[@MattBellzminion]

Although their production may suggest to some that the Infographics team is a perpetual motion machine, you have to keep feeding them.

[@tertrih9078]

Haha. So true

[@ignitionfrn2223]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="30">0:30</a> - Chapter 1 - The drinking bird <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="185">3:05</a> - Chapter 2 - Perpetual marble machine <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="325">5:25</a> - Chapter 3 - Magnetic fidget spinner motor <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="505">8:25</a> - Chapter 4 - Dreadco perpetual motion machine <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="720">12:00</a> - Chapter 5 - Perpetual energy from god

[@DrWhat2]

You forgot to discuss Besslers Wheel. Unless I missed it

[@adrielburned6924]

If my 42 yr old little brother is reading this; I hope this video finally convinces you that your magnet perpetual motion design WILL NOT WORK. I'm sorry, but it was a good try. 😊 Love ya brother! ❤

[@demsandlibsareswinecancer4667]

Actually your brother is correct that the only possible way to even conceive of or attempt to produce a machine of perpetual motion would be through magnetism. Electromagnetism is the strongest force in the universe. The only reason there is no way to make a perpetual motion machine, even with magnetism, is that all things eventually corrode and break down and so will a perpetual motion machine. Even if successfully harnessing the magnetism to gain perpetual motion. That truly is the only folly in your brothers thinking so I would give him a bit more credit than you are.

[@Chris47368]

I came up with a similar concept when i was 14 or 15... needless to say i was disappointed to learn thermodynamics makes such a thing impossible shortly after 😂 Reality truly can be disappointing 😢

[@JoeSmith-cy9wj]

You might want to encourage your little brother. After all, every atom in the universe, as far as anyone can tell, is a perpetual motion machine.

[@jasonbutler4867]

I have made a beta version of what I’m assuming is your brother’s idea of a spinning, magnetic electrical system and the second you add any resistance to it won’t work even using the most super super magnets

[@rebirth_mishap]

Is name isn't Issac is it?

[@velzekt4598]

Every machine can be a perpetual motion machine if you apply enough external energy to it

[@rashidisw]

That is why I always advocates to siphon Earth rotational momentum for power generator.

[@prestonsingersoll]

Holy shit that last one hit way too close to home. When I was 13 my dad quit his teaching job and cashed out his retirement because he thought that god had told him the designs for an AC solid state battery. He drove my family to bankruptcy trying to put together an incoherent non-sensical mess of a battery that never worked.

[@MizterTonik]

You hate to hear it, man. That sucks.

[@vladimirjar3800]

if god is powering the perpetual motion machine then it is not perpetual motion because it is powerd by an out side force

[@MichaelWinter-ss6lx]

He was too far ahead of his time, as solid state batteries now are being researched.

[@xAllCatsAreBeautiful1312x]

🙄 😒​@@vladimirjar3800

[@xAllCatsAreBeautiful1312x]

Sorry to hear that. I'm no psychiatrist but that sounds like some undiagnosed mental health issues.

[@dbblues.9168]

There's an old saying: the hardest part of inventing a perpetual motion machine is figuring out how to get money for it on crowd funding sites.

[@Reegareth]

I have no idea why were so obsessed with the idea of a perpetual motion machine for energy when we have a massive fusion reactor that we're all literally floating around...

[@ryshellso526]

Chill out musk...

[@neeneko]

There is a pretty big cultural element to it. when you rubberneck the free energy communities, you find that they tend to be rather conspiratorial and anti semitic.. their world is dominated by the idea that the world is wrong and that a group of (unworthy) people are intentionally keeping the world they deserve away from them. Kinda like flat earthers or sovereign citizens.. and once they have that shared belief of fighting the great evil and persecution for being superior, they bond over it. Can't get that from something that works.

[@joeshmoe7967]

Well, the fusion reactor gets blocked for a good part of the 'day', plus clouds etc. Now if someone could invent a pocket sized device to use the output of the reactor, in a meaningful way. I mean NOT a 3 watt phone charger etc. Or run your house, but not cost $30K up front. 'Free' is always an attractive option. Unfortunately there is no 'free', anywhere.

[@Ed_Stuckey]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="21">0:21</a> Harbor Freight free multimeter shows tools of a true scientist.

[@lelokong6898]

Sad that they don't do, free tape measures anymore,

[@drkastenbrot]

@@lelokong6898 the tape measure is a decent free tool but the multimeter is a serious hazard with the completely unsuitable fuses inside.

[@SteveSiegelin]

When you need multiple meters they work fine. They are as accurate as my $150 meter but they have no security circuit so the are easy to destroy. I use up to 5 sometimes so that I can have live readings from multiple points of my projects at the same time. It is cheaper than an oscilloscope yet still pretty accurate. Bad batteries will give you bad readings but the meters cost $7-$12 and as long as you use a good meter to calibrate initially you will be fine.

[@A_Stereotypical_Heretic]

Free with purchase tyvm

[@A_Stereotypical_Heretic]

​@@drkastenbrotand that's a hazard how?

[@michaeldowson6988]

There already is a perpetual motion machine. It's generally referred to as a 'two year old'.

[@PLUV1]

sadly those 2 year old only keeps in motion when under surveillance .

[@SarahC2]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="175">2:55</a> That's my piccy from my Flickr page! Wooooo! Internet famous. Thanks Simon!

[@ArtUniverse]

The biggest challenge in making a perpetual motion machine is hiding the energy source.

[@ulvschmidt7174]

My favourite are those clocks that get powered by the heat difference in the day night cycle

[@commitfelonyfeline]

Wow, this joke is even funnier the 100th time

[@lawnmowerdude]

I got an ad on KZbin the other day trying to sell me perpetual motion plans. What a crock of garbage. It went on and on about how amazing it was and took them 5 whole minutes of constantly hyping this pile of garbage up to show a two second video of it “working”. What amounted to two stepper motors coupled together with a battery and a bunch of useless circuits.

[@wbeaty]

There a much better version, where you buy a large set of plans for big bucks ...which turn out to be copied from several free-energy websites. It's perpetual motion: selling free stuff.

[@ABD5667]

All motion needs energy. Friction stops motion. In the end a person needs more energy to overcome friction, for perpetual motion perpetual energy is needed

[@AdamtheRed-]

Gotta say that thumbnail looks like the most useless machine that the AI could come up with. None of the gears connect. It looks neat though.

[@brionfranks478]

@@AdamtheRed- a Rube Goldberg contraption for sure...

[@SpydersByte]

lol right? Definitely an AI generated image, those gears are completely pointless. Also the teeth near the screw look a bit wonky

[@A_Stereotypical_Heretic]

Well the mechanism is sound though. Obviously not for perpetual motion since that doesn't exist. But in theory the horizontal gear turns the spiral gear, which oscillates the bar above it back and forth, which on a particular stroke pushes the vertical gears (which should be clock gears) that rotate the bottom horizontal gear, which turns the spiral gear, which oscillates the bar which turns the two vertical gears etc etc.

[@AdamtheRed-]

@@A_Stereotypical_Heretic none of the gears actually connect. It's a nonsense AI image. Look at the left most vertical gear. It doesn't have a top, past the horizontal bar, that also seems useless. The bottom horizontal gear is fixed to the base with the screws that can be seen, and it seems like all the vertical gears would be inside of it where they intersect. It looks neat, though. The center, what looks like a worm gear, isn't actually a gear at all. It's like four inverted bowls on the shaft. No power is being transferred there.

[@A_Stereotypical_Heretic]

@@AdamtheRed- i mean yeah of course it's a garbage image, but you can understand the deeply buried gist.

[@murrayscott9546]

I once tried to invent a perpetual motion machine. Piece of junk, I threw it away. Stupid thing kept going faster and faster !

[@InfinateIntensity]

The main problem with perpetual motion is that even IF it WAS possible, it would never generate enough torque to spin a turbine generator

[@Global-yt]

I mean, even if you got just a single watt from a machine, all you need is 1 billion of them to make 1 billion watts...

[@InfinateIntensity]

@@Global-yt I wonder what the return on investment would be for something like that, probably a million years

[@Global-yt]

​@@InfinateIntensity I mean, there's a billion and a half iPhones in existence. It really isn't that hard.

[@35ABSTRACT]

So enlarge the bird by a factor of 100 and place it next to a lake. Voila. My work here is done.

[@akulkis]

Not perpetual motion, but the energy input (ambient heat) is relatively free.

[@wbeaty]

Already been done, in the 1970s. The "Minto Wheel," was four or six giant dipping-birds on the same axel, made with huge propane tanks, dipping into solar-heated warm water.

[@someguy15721]

@@wbeaty So, what would have happened if someone hooked it up to a generator? so it could possibly produce energy?

[@Briggsby]

​@@someguy15721I mean, yeah, you *can* do that. Or you can use that space to build a 50kw solar array that has no moving parts, produces hundreds of times more energy, and doesn't involve flammable gasses under pressure.

[@wbeaty]

@@someguy15721 I think they did. Gearbox to step it up. Wally Minto. But the efficiency is terrible. Instead use a giant solar mirror focused on a boiler, like they do today in Nevada etc.

[@kenbrown2808]

I have access to a system that will remain in motion until the heat death of the universe. I call it, "the universe"

[@Blitterbug]

Yes. Been looking for someone to state this.

[@leonskum6864]

The only thing perpetual about claims of perpetual motion machines is the unending BS.

[@TheMNWolf]

From someone who loves shows like Penn and Teller Fool Us, the best illusions are the ones that are extremely simple but made to look extremely complex. I am certain I could replicate the Dreadco machine believably. I am not certain it would use the same mechanism, but I'm relatively certain you couldn't tell it apart from the original.

[@therealjammit]

As a kid I thought about making a motor that ran off of opposing magnets. But I never thought for one second I was making a perpetual motion machine. I was thinking of a motor that used magnets as an energy storage and expected the magnets to get weaker and run out of magnetic field or "power". My idea was to use them in portable tape recorders to drive the tape path and use auxiliary battery power just to power the amplifier since the electric motors used the majority of the battery power. A mechanical feedback hooked up to a mechanical brake was used for speed regulation or to turn it off.

[@JackBWatkins]

So I assume the magnets wouldn’t erase the tape.

[@akulkis]

​@@JackBWatkins No. Magnetic tape is stable in weak, non-oscillating magnetic fields. Erasure requires a high intensity, oscillating magnetic fields which decreases in intensity.

[@MichaelPoage666]

On magnets erasing tape, I was a college radio DJ. We had a magnetic tape eraser. It's basically a big, square, electromagnet with a hole to pass the cassette or other magnetic media through. This thing was big and heavy and plugged into a wall outlet. The power of magnets to erase magnetic tape is kind of exaggerated in most people's minds. It takes a pretty serious magnet to do it effectively.

[@therealjammit]

@@JackBWatkins If you put them too close to the tape, yes. But remember the electric motor also has magnets. Some sort of shielding would have been necessary. It's all moot because the magnet motor would have never worked anyway.

[@JackBWatkins]

@@therealjammit Well I was just trying to be funny, but instead all of you gave me some great information. Best part was nobody was mean and everyone stayed positive. Best KZbin thread ever.

[@DavidBenner-cy4zl]

As the Universe expands it is winding down. Nothing physical is perpetual.

[@michaeldowson6988]

...and human stupidity isn't physical, so...

[@mitchsmith7472]

The universe is speeding up

[@DavidBenner-cy4zl]

@mitchsmith7472 yes. To our extremely limited understanding. And going to end one day

[@samuelgarrod8327]

​@@mitchsmith7472No it isn't. Expansion may be accelerating but that doesn't mean 'speed' is increasing.That would make a nonsense of the arrow of time, atrophy.

[@mitchsmith7472]

@@samuelgarrod8327 yes it is. Anyway

[@Uajd-hb1qs]

When I found out about perpetual motion machines as a kid, I couldn’t help but think up a few concepts myself. I even got chatting with my science teacher at school who also theorised a perpetual machine himself when he was younger. His concept wasn’t really perpetual motion, more perpetual energy conversion. It consisted of a bank of lightbulbs contained in a box made from basically solar panels that would convert the light and heat energy from the bulbs into electricity that would then be fed back to the bulbs to, in theory, keep them indefinitely lit. The problem being that every component would have to be 100% efficient in its task, which no modern electrical equipment is capable of. My own concept was a self-propelling A/C unit. The idea was a Stirling engine linked mechanically to two fan rotors geared in a way that one rotor would spin faster than the other. The Stirling engine would be started with a heat source first to spin up the fans. The fan geared to spin faster would force air over the slower fan which itself was geared to the crank of the Stirling engine, sending the power back to the faster fan until an equilibrium was reached. The heat source could then be removed and the Stirling engine could be allowed to operate as a motor to create cold air. My guess for how this wouldn’t work is the supposed “equilibrium” of the two fans creating a sort of feedback loop would be impossible without needing to artificially energise the airflow.

[@Diehydro]

The drinking bird you might know from such films as “Alien” & “Darkman”

[@Nick-v7b3l]

Darkman was the first thing I thought of. An underrated Liam Neeson and Sam Raimi classic!

[@Diehydro]

@@Nick-v7b3l Totally agree

[@squidly2112]

I had one of those birds as a kid

[@mattburley3189]

Darkman!! Thank you! That was driving me nuts trying to remember.

[@Diehydro]

@@mattburley3189 🙂

[@geoff2504]

Perpetually reminding us about perpetual motion machines. Do I feel a sense of Deja-vu? I seem to remember hearing about that!

[@martinstallard2742]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="27">0:27</a> the drinking bird <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="182">3:02</a> perpetual marble machine <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="320">5:20</a> magnetic fidget spinning motor <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="501">8:21</a> dreadco perpetual motion machine <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="717">11:57</a> perpetual energy from god

[@MrSunDevil23]

My ex-wife called me the perpetual drinking bird…

[@thetroll1247]

Still watching lol thank you

[@kingnaga619]

God bless

[@gregh378]

I'm a complete sceptic of perpetual motion, but I am fascinated by the approaches. It started when I was a kid and hooked 6 dynamos up to a single motor and was perplexed when they would produce enough energy to power the motor.

[@julianhigginson5946]

My kids have come close to inventing perpetually motion I turn the lights off and they leave them on. It never stops

[@westwonic]

Same with the toilet seat.....

[@Reece-u3f]

Bots everywhere within the first minute of uploading 😂

[@MouseGoat]

"its Perpetual Motion!" "of you device?" "no people will Perpetually though the use of motion replace the batteries with new working ones"

[@josephpk4878]

Had my headphone volume cranked when this video started. Almost blew out my eardrums with the "PREVIOUSLY!!!" intro.

[@joshshoop2313]

The only thing perpetual about these machines are the people that think they can make one work 😂

[@charleediaven6278]

A self trained Mechanical Engineer and home inventor, a friend of mine used the magnetic wheel gadget. However his wheel also had water pouring on it, like the old water wheels. He was proud of his magnets accelerating the wheel to incredible speeds. When last seen he was tweaking the magnet switching mechanics. I never had the heart to point out the many flaws. Water wheels have great power and easily charged the low voltage DC batteries and for the solenoids. I never had the heart to say it was not perpetual motion which he claimed.

[@jorgelotr3752]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="220">3:40</a> also, the original and some of the knock-offs worked by different principles (magnets in the base in the original, a motorized wheel in at least some knock-offs).

[@donaldasayers]

I'm a horologist and I'm familiar with one particular type of mystery clock. The clock in question has only one hand which can be spun feely, but it always comes to rest pointing to the correct time and left to itself, the hand rotates in 12 hours always indicating the correct time, with no obvious means of propulsion. I know how it works. When I saw Jones' 'perpetual motion' machine I postulated a connection, so I made my own version at the school where I worked. It ran for many years, intriguing and annoying staff and pupils alike. My youngest aged about three, dismissed it with the opinion the it 'had batteries in it.' He was correct.

[@Guedez1]

A good point that was not mentioned on the magnet wheels: The reason people even consider that it could ever be possible is because most people have an extremely rudimentary intuition for how magnets work They make continuous force fields They don't just make in front of the magnets where N pushes N They also do it to the sides Sliding two N facing magnets against one another takes exactly as much energy than they produce when they push each other apart You are better to think of magnets as "springy gears" than "pushing force fields"

[@pmsteamrailroading]

My wife used to work with Sullivan’s daughter. (She had great stories (like dad moving things around in the living room with magnets held to basement ceiling))

[@Birthing_Bovines]

The most difficult part about perpetual motion ISN’T where to hide the battery, it’s figuring out how to use quantum science to summon infinite amounts of energy.

[@esra_erimez]

The most difficult part of building a Perpetual Motion Machine is where to hide the battery

[@A_Stereotypical_Heretic]

Aren't you cute

[@commitfelonyfeline]

That makes the 8th time I've seen this F-tier joke in this comment section

[@GlassDeviant]

Sadly the one thing all perpetual motion machines fail on is the presence of friction in the system, which immediately prevents any hope of perpetual motion. Even the giant pendulums at many museums have a minute bit of friction that takes energy out.

[@frogmad]

Nuclear fusion may well be considered the best ‘perpetual motion machine’ we’ll ever be able to make, but admittedly it is pretty damn impressive.

[@douggiles7647]

It's said that the hardest part about building a perpetual motion machine is finding a place to hide the battery. Could be why those 2 were disappointed in the truth of how the Dreadco machine works.

[@wbeaty]

I've had a Dreadco machine apart (when it was at MOS in Boston, a slightly different one with big black horse-shoe magnets.) It won't run for an entire year. For the secret, think Dilbert's pointy-haired boss engineering (or perhaps Wally.) While it was there, a little kid guessed the secret, won the $1K prize.

[@Doggy-B]

Perpetual motion is YT's autoplay feature playing Simon's greatest hits... its truly endless.

[@L08Productions]

I thought he was going to start off by saying "Hey vSauce, it's Michael." Are you his long lost twin?

[@flamesofhellstudio]

The entire universe is the closest thing to a perpetual motion machine and it's not even perpetual, it just has a lot of energy.

[@mrmosty5167]

The Daedalus Cartwheel is one of the most fascinating inventions ever made

[@texmex9721]

When most people say "perpetual motion machine", they really mean an over unity machine. They don't want something that will spin by itself forever, they want something that will spin forever even when you extract power.

[@Reverend_Salem]

perpetual motion work in theory (assuming no friction, and no energy losses) and technically exist in real life with time crystals ( quantum state of particals whos lowest energy state is one of repetitive motion. because the particals are already in their lowest energy state, no energy can be extracted from them.) over unity devices are not possible, even on paper.

[@TheNazzerDawk]

I once heard that the idea of perpetual motion will never work for the same reason that no method of shuffling cards around will result in another card being added to the deck. If one did, it had to come from elsewhere.

[@wags9777]

The last inventor probably reinvented the arc of the covenant on a large scale but well never know. 😂

[@Qwerty-rx5pd]

Build massive versions of that bird and dip the beaks in the sea, free energy for life 😂

[@boogieknee3781]

My personal favourite is the static electricity motor category since concealing how the energy enters the system is child's play.

[@Palemagpie]

I love designing these things. Yea theyre an impossible project. But thats the fun. Super good for lateral thinking. Ive developed some actually useful components and stuff out of it.

[@jmr]

I like to say if you can hear it running you can hear it using energy.

[@jakeeasterwood3204]

The only true perpetual motion machine will always be people who perpetually try to make one.

[@johnmadsen37]

This does explain why my drinking bird curses at me.

[@YUProductionz]

Theres a new saying that its not truly a perpetual motion video unless there is a comment about that old saying: The most difficult thing about building perpetual motion machines is figuring out where to hide the battery.

[@commitfelonyfeline]

Lol yes

[@Blackvertigo1]

The only reason why perpetual motion machines don't work is simple: Friction.

[@drkastenbrot]

my personal conclusion for one of the daedalus machines is compressed air at low pressure being blown onto the sides of the bicycle wheel. its dead simple, low maintenance and extremely reliable, and all parts needed are clearly there.

[@wbeaty]

That's not it. When his machine was exhibited at Boston's Museum of Science, we had it apart every nine months, for "servicing." It would only run for about that long.

[@CountJeffula]

What’s funny is that even if they made a perpetual motion machine, that isn’t enough. You need perpetual excess motion to extract usable energy from it. Just barely being able to reset itself means no energy left over to extract for usable ends. What a Sisyphean task. Lol

[@KelticTim]

How can we not figure out how to use the ocean to get perpetual motion? It’s not like some giant baffles that are pushed by the tides will ever stop the tides. The moon is gonna win that tug of war every time. There has to be a way. Maybe Elon should do that instead of tunneling under LA.

[@damaddog8065]

As the universe is not subject to the laws of physics, time and space are basically magic, a perpetual motion machine is possible, until we figure out what makes it go, and then it is not.

[@novacorponline]

On the one hand, it feels like magnets would be the key to a perpetual motion device, but on the other hand, I'm not sure if it would *count* because magnets are kind of a power source. And magnets *can* become demagnetized so we know they aren't unlimited power sources.

[@JaredBrewerAerospace]

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="760">12:40</a> I love how genuinely school-girl giddy Simon gets.🤗

[@nickhickey3]

This is the top 10 side projects episode. Simon killed it

[@kirbywaite1586]

If any machine were actually capable of perpetual motion, it would begin moving without any initial push.

[@wbeaty]

If the Wright Brothers' plane was actually real, it wouldn't need to be launched using a falling-weight catapult. And industrial AC synchronous motors are an obvious hoax, since they won't start without an initial push.

[@lauriepenner350]

I still say there's got to be a market for a "nearly" perpetual motion machine that generates unlimited power as long as you pay some kid minimum wage to give it a push whenever it slows down.

[@jerotoro2021]

I think most everything is "nearly" perpetual, as long as you keep adding fuel and replacing worn parts.

[@danielpope6498]

That would only ever output the amount of power the kid was able to produce. Whats the point then?

[@BillAnt]

Well yeah, if you spin a bicycle wheel in the vacuum of space far away from Earth it will spin there for a very long time. But guess what?! Even that will stop eventually from the gravitational pull of the Sun and other planets.... eventually.

[@wbeaty]

Man, if we could only get a magnet-destroying motor to work. That's the kind where it keeps spinning for an hour, but the magnets get weaker and weaker. It would be the start of a million-dollar toy industry. (And, note that if we use ceramic magnets as the "fuel," we can easily re-charged them again, by holding them against a neo rare-earth magnet.)

[@ulvschmidt7174]

Sure like solar panels and wind turbines?

[@Zer0fuks]

May not be truly perpetual, but these devices could definitely boost efficiency, mechanically speaking.

[@nicholascook9584]

So Floyd just described a nuclear reactor with a pretty good half life to make power for a while, or at least that is what sounds like.

[@benjaminbotley]

“Because that’s how perpetual motion works!” 😂

[@DanielLCarrier]

If the last one was real, you presumably would need to replace the batteries because they don't last that long. There's more to why perpetual motion is impossible than parts wearing out.

[@tomickes409]

A common oversight when considering the possibility of a perpetual motion machine is the need for it to operate in conditions that are virtually impossible to achieve. For such a device to work, it would require a "perfect" vacuum-completely devoid of any matter or particles. Additionally, it would need to exist at absolute zero, the theoretical temperature where all molecular motion ceases. Moreover, it couldn't be influenced by any external forces, such as gravity, sunlight, radio waves, or any form of external energy or interference. Beyond that, the machine couldn't rely on anything that deteriorates over time, such as batteries, chemical reactions, or nuclear decay. These materials all break down and lose efficiency, leading to inevitable energy loss. This is why perpetual motion machines are fundamentally impossible-they violate the laws of thermodynamics, especially the conservation of energy, which dictates that energy cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system. Even the testing facility for a perpetual motion machine would be nearly impossible to engineer. Creating a perfectly isolated environment, completely free from external influences, and maintaining it at absolute zero is beyond our current technological capabilities. These extreme conditions underscore why the concept of perpetual motion, while intriguing, is simply unattainable in practice.

[@dinsdalemontypiranha4349]

That was fun Simon! Thanks!

[@KlaxontheImpailr]

Number 4 was really clever, in that it's more like a critical thinking puzzle rather than an actual pmm.

[@bertram-raven]

I do not know who writes the script but they need to understand the difference between "use" and "utilise." Clue: Every use of the word "utilise" in this video is wrong.

[@denissavgir2881]

Perpetual motion: quantum fluctuations

[@SamuraiPipotchi]

This is how I find out that you have not one but two other channels you present on

[@SamuraiPipotchi]

Oh damn it's more like 10 other channels

[@kenbrown2808]

when I was young, my parents took me to science museums. several of them had demonstration rigs that had various human powered generators connected to light bulbs. the harder the generator was cranked, the more light bulbs could be lighted up. but the commonality of all of them was how much effort it took to increase the power output. I think many "free energy by boostrapping" believers have never seen such a device.

[@wbeaty]

The Exploratorium in SF once had a longwire antenna, a couple hundred feet long, which would flash a single LED, blinking once every several minutes. (And so, all the "ambient RF" crackpots never actually tried to harvest atmospheric energy. It's there, and its real, and maybe it was powerful enough that it could keep a single Crookes Radiometer spinning, even when it was dark outside.)

[@kenbrown2808]

@@wbeaty you know what makes really good collectors for "free to me" energy? commercially made solar systems.

[@ortizguard2816]

You can tell the crew had fun writing this script!😂❤

[@rtqii]

There was a guy who had a machine that turned a large fan blade rather slowly with just a very tiny current from a 9 volt battery. The battery energized a gerbil wheel with a high voltage from a multiplier circuit and shocked their little feet into running really fast.

[@paradiselost9946]

gerbils only last for so long, and their excrement tends to accumulate.

[@Jodawo]

I believe the only possible perpetual machine would be a robot with an AI brain. The AI part would be given the knowledge of how to repair itself and get energy. The robot part would be able to do the physical labor necessary to sustain itself. Making it possible to send it to anywhere. With its knowledge, it would be able to manufacture or create what is necessary to keep it going indefinitely. The robot part could be made to run on any type of energy. The AI part would give it knowledge on how to take raw materials for its own repair and to create power sources. We have AI's today that can learn. A good example of this is AlphaZero. Given just the rules of chess was able to teach itself to be any Grandmaster within hours. Giving it all of the knowledge necessary to keep itself running would allow it to be autonomous. We are not at that level yet to create such a machine but technically it would fulfill the definition of a perpetual motion machine.

[@duudsuufd]

Perpetual motion machines are not supposed to use some external energy. It is not the same as autonomous.

[@BloodSteyn]

I came up with the idea for a Magnetic Perpetual Motion Power Generator back in high school, and wondered why nobody else had done it yet... well, that was until I discovered the laws of thermodynamics. Also, no internet back then.

[@mitaskeledzija6269]

The closest we can get in my opinion to perpetual motion, because I have always been fascinated by this, is making more energy output than the initial input.. so either by combining all aspects of existing technologies that generate electricity and it's output and other outputs that can successfully be reused to power the same machine or added to the total output generated.. but idk. We have disproven some laws of physics but these are fundamental.

[@vinichab]

I know for a fact perpetual motion is impossible, but I just can't accept it lol. It's a facinating concept

[@CeeKayz0rz]

>Batteries >Perpetual motion I mean, the "motion" of the generator could indeed be "perpetual", whilst feeding batteries that act as charge storage and leveling (i.e. not a spike of say 12v every cycle, but instead charging a battery that will deliver a constant 12v).... Though, arguing the semantics of perpetual motion machine terminology sure feels like a really silly thing to be doing.... Especially in a YT comments section...... XD

[@Cantab-ml6pw]

The saddest thing about all of this (except for the beauty of the pursuit of pure science) is that for a perpetual motion machine to have any groundbreaking human relevance it will have to deliver MORE power than is put into it, not just sit there at a point of energy equilibrium. So not only do you have to counteract friction etc (which also means that you will ultimately have to pay money to replace worn out parts), you have to create something out of more than its parts. The closest thing I can think of in terms of perpetual motion are the stars and planets, doing their orbital/gravitational dance. Even then we know that won't last forever. Still, the drive to create the nearest possible thing to a perpetual motion machine is FUN!

[@crappyusername69]

Technically gravity never stops "pulling" the objects, but eventually they'll hit the object, which obviously ceases movement. If you could somehow prevent collision, it would pull straight to the center before stopping. So it never really runs out of "energy" but that energy can only move things to 1 spot.

[@paradiselost9946]

none of us have been around long enough to verify that aspect... as one astrophycisist states... "a lot of this work is like watching a blade of grass and predicting the winner of the kentucky derby..." come on, pluto hasnt even performed a full orbit since being discovered...

[@Bapuji42]

this guy will never be vsauce no matter how hard he tries

[@Laggyness]

The people that believe perpetual motion machines really work are probably the same ones that thought the "Chase money glitch" was also real. 😂

[@ChuckvdL]

Heh, I had a drinking bird as a kid in the 60’s. It was obviously ‘powered’ by the evaporating water as it stopped once its beak could no longer reach the water. Also the heat from your hand on its bottom would make it go faster, so even as a young kid I knew it wasn’t magic..

[@wolfrainexxx]

"Apparently 'God' is a nationalist." Tell us you know nothing about religion without telling us. "Perpetual motion is Scientifically impossible." "Energy cannot be created, or destroyed.." "Even if we could harvest the sun's energy for 10 million years, it would still not be perpetual energy." Yeah. Reasoning like this is why we abandoned nuclear energy.

[@jamesedwards5702]

I had one as a kid in the 60s - 70s. Pretty cool toy.

[@Buster-Sharp]

If you think of yourself and your writers as well lubricated moters, your video empire is kinda like a perpetual money machine 😆

[@oldfrittenfett1276]

Even if someone comes up with a concept: I don't think you could extract any energy fom it.

[@AndyBonesSynthPro]

So you're telling me this thing on my desk will stop twirling at some point

[@Caffin8tor]

I mean, the device is definitely not a perpetual motion device, but batteries do stop working after a number of charge and discharge cycles. That would be the reason that the batteries would need to be replaced on the last device assuming that it actually did work.

[@JGoodrich-ny1ds]

Even if a 100% efficient machine were possible, Motion itself expends energy in the form of drag/ resistance to motion. That aside (In reality it can't be put aside) outside energy is always required on startup. The balls first bounce is always the highest.

[@Navoii.]

"Perpetual motion is impossible" Mfs when I throw them in the cold void of space (they're moving without any external force)

[@bioLarzen]

Even if any magnet-based "perpetuum mobile" seemed to genuinely work (they don't) - magnets lose their magnetic properties over time (even if very slowly), so they wouldn't work "forever".