Why are perpetual motion machines impossible?
What is a perpetual motion machine?
A device that can do work indefinitely without any external energy source is called as a perpetual motion machine. Many ideas for perpetual motion machines had been put forth by many people in the past. Just imagine a windmill that can produce the breeze that it needs and a bulb that gets charged by it's own glow. Such ideas have caught many people's attention. Because if you build a perpetual motion machine, it would serve you energy infinitely. This means not only Earthly sources, but even our space exploration can be boosted.
Why are perpetual motion machines impossible?
But the only problem with these machines is that they don't work. Yes! All of these machines violate either of the law of thermodynamics.
The first law of thermodynamics states that "Energy cannot be created nor be destroyed." This means you will get only that much energy whatever you put in. This means even if you make a perpetual motion machine that works, it will create only that much energy which will make it work. You can't more energy out of it. But if you want a machine to work only for itself??? Several ideas have been proposed regarding this. One of it is the Bhaskara's over balanced wheel. It has a set of curved ramps and liquid mercury of some proportion in each part. This will make it move infinitely due to the imbalance.
Many variations to the Bhaskara's wheel were proposed, but all of them failed. Variations included, rolling balls, hanging weights or swinging arms. None of them work as their circular motion led to shift in its centre of mass which made it stop.
Another approach of Robert Boyle suggests capillary action may create an self watering pot. But that too failed. There are also versions with magnets and ramps. A magnet at the top is supposed to pull the ball upwards and then the ball will fall again and will be pulled again. But this idea also terribly fails as the magnet will pull he ball and the ball will stick to it.
Somehow, all the perpetual motion machines if worked will violate the first law of thermodynamics. Even if they don't violate the first law, the second law will be a problem. The second law states that "energy spreads out via processes like friction." The perpetual motion machines having some contact with air, will generate friction and will generate heat. This heat is nothing but the energy lost. The energy will keep escaping and gradually will reduce the efficiency of the machine.
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Many variations to the Bhaskara's wheel were proposed, but all of them failed. Variations included, rolling balls, hanging weights or swinging arms. None of them work as their circular motion led to shift in its centre of mass which made it stop.
Another approach of Robert Boyle suggests capillary action may create an self watering pot. But that too failed. There are also versions with magnets and ramps. A magnet at the top is supposed to pull the ball upwards and then the ball will fall again and will be pulled again. But this idea also terribly fails as the magnet will pull he ball and the ball will stick to it.
Somehow, all the perpetual motion machines if worked will violate the first law of thermodynamics. Even if they don't violate the first law, the second law will be a problem. The second law states that "energy spreads out via processes like friction." The perpetual motion machines having some contact with air, will generate friction and will generate heat. This heat is nothing but the energy lost. The energy will keep escaping and gradually will reduce the efficiency of the machine.
Conclusion:
So far these two laws manage to fail all the perpetual motion machines that exist and they also the dreams of making a self sufficient energy source. Yet, conclusively it's hard to say that we will not discover one. But currently, the laws of thermodynamics make it impossible.Unfortunately, there are no images on the post which are copyright free. If you want to donate a related image, please contact me.
Posts before October 2021 have been marked as "Old Posts". Less likely, but they might have out dated or incorrect information, ugly looking bits of code, no labels, etc. Don't get me wrong, many of these posts are top-notch and interesting too.
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
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