Nice, these are hilarious. The constant motor speed can so clearly be seen on each one as it immediately slows to the motor rpm. The fun part is figuring out where they hide the motor on each one.
The liquid pouring into itself is the best. Who would believe that, any kid with a piece of garden hose could find out for themselves in seconds that liquid won’t behave like this.
Or perhaps it’s just magic, which is totally real.
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Place your dominoes in tidal zone. Anchor them to the base with a hinge. Place a flotation device at the top of each domino big enough to lift the domino when the tide comes in. Let one domino be restrained so it can’t come fully upright. Every 12 hours or so your dominos will rise and fall.
At least until the planets come off there axis.
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Or until the wooden dominos get biodegraded by the ocean in about 13 years…
I think tidal energy is great though.
https://www.boem.gov/Ocean-Current-Energy/
I’m still a firm believer that perpetual energy is possible though. Have you heard of Clarke’s first law?
“1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
Rather than dismissing this problem as impossible, I think we should try to figure out how to make it work. In a way, biological life is a perpetual energy machine. For billions of years, generation after generation, life has been moving. Life is a product of itself, so the passing of genes is basically like cellular division where a part of your ancestors lives on and grows into you.
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”
-Frank Lloyd Wright
I think biological life, like animals, would be great inspiration for a perpetual energy machine. The perpetual energy machine could reproduce, so there’s always a new one. The energy for the machines could be produced by machines similar to plants. The plants could sit in place and generate electricity from renewable resources like solar, tidal energy, etc. and spend a portion of that energy on self-replication using surrounding elements as building materials (like metals from excavated ore, plastics from oil drilling, etc.). The symbiotic machines could potentially work until they run out of harnessable energy and building materials. Also, the symbiotic machines could survive on Mars, populate Mars through reproduction using iron (one of the most abundant materials in Mars’ crust) and solar power, and eventually make Mars habitable after building enough infrastructure. By sending them, the worker robot and the energy harnessing robot, they could reproduce to populate Mars with millions (or even billions) of robots to transform Mars.
I might make a SketchUp model of this idea…
Boy that’s a lot. I like the sentiment. But I think a more respectful and prudent use of what we have is more within our collective grasp.
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What about a wheel that reflects radiant pressure on one side & absorbs it on the other? There’s a ball bearing in the middle to allow spinning.
If the fins were shaped just right (maybe curved), then they might be able collect enough radiant pressure and reflect it enough to move the wheel.
Look up crookes radiometer
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You can even play with one from the warehouse.
I looked it up. The Wikipedia article was an interesting read. First, radiant pressure is not what makes the device rotate, but heat.
The pinwheel is vacuum insulated (vacuum insulation has the highest r-rating), so I imagine thermal transfer through convection is minimal. Even if it did, wouldn’t the thermal pressure find an equilibrium?
Again, read the article. A Crookes radiometer ceases to work at high vacuum, because the force from radiation pressure (which has been measured using other instruments) is too small to overcome even minute friction in the bearing.
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And the pressure of the gas flow in a partial vacuum is strong enough to spin the pinwheel 1,000 times per minute in sunlight? Are the sparse air particles actually moving that fast in there? And how can a partial vacuum even have that much pressure? Also, glass is an insulator too.
I give up.
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Whew!
This entire thread reminds me of an Asimov short story:
The Last Question
I thought you were going to say TANSTAAFL 
(or is that Heinlein?)
That’s Heinlein
I think Heineken would help a lot with this thread.
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TANSTAAFL was my second thought while the final line of The Last Question was my first thought. I went with my first thought.
And @slbaumgartner is correct, TANSTAAFL is indeed Heinlein - from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.
Actually, I knew that … it’s on the bumper of my car 
[EDITED: I thought this looked familiar … sure enough, I said the same thing back in October: Perpetual energy machine problem - #15 by jimhami42]
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Forestr, I must admit, your threads are always interesting! LOL!
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