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Re: perpetual motion ahoy!

On Thu, 22 May 1997, William Beaty wrote:


Anyone interested in "PM" machines? A hobbyist in Australia has managed
to make a steel ball roll up a magnet-lined slope, then fall over the edge
and roll away!

Does anyone have opinions on how this could occur without violating
conservation of energy?


.....................uuuu / oo \ uuuu........,.............................
William Beaty voice:206-781-3320 bbs:206-789-0775 cserv:71241,3623
EE/Programmer/Science exhibit designer http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/
Seattle, WA 98117 billb@eskimo.com SCIENCE HOBBYIST web page




I'm not particularly interested in perpetual motion machines, but it does
seem to me that if we could line a track with magnets in such a way that
there was a component of force up the track which might accelerate a
ferromagnetic object it might be made to run up hill and over the edge.

On the other hand one does have to worry about energy considerations.
Where does the energy come from to move the object up in the
gravitational field of the earth? We have plowed this ground before and
know that it can be confusing. My guess is that the energy comes from the
magnetic field, but only the magnets know for sure!

W. Barlow Newbolt 540-463-8881 (telephone)
218 Howe Hall 540-463-8884 (fax)
Washington and Lee University newbolt.w@fs.science.wlu.edu
Lexington, Virginia 24450 wnewbolt@liberty.uc.wlu.edu

"What can you say about a society which insists that
God is dead, but which also insists that Elvis Presley
is alive?"
Irv Cupsinet