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Re: toroidal perpetual motion machine



Off-list the question was asked:

It seems to me the height of the meniscus is not equal inside
and outside because of the positive and negative curvature.

Is this the hand you have sleighted?

Nope.

Let's see if we can be scientific about this. A scientific theory should
be specific and testable, indeed falsifiable. Let's see if we can quantify
the foregoing suggestion, to make it more testable. The first step is to
write down a definite functional form indicating how the meniscus depends
on curvature. Then test the hypothesis. There are two possibilities:

A) Hypothesize that the meniscus-height is directly proportional to
curvature, i.e. inversely proportional to radius. This must be rejected,
because it predicts zero meniscus for a long uncurved cylindrical tube,
contrary to everyday observations.

B) Hypothesize some other functional form. This must be rejected because
it doesn't have the right scaling properties when you consider a family of
inner-tubes with various outer and inner radii.