Idea for a perpetual motion machine

[heterotictype1]

If someone were to send a probe out to interstellar space, bring it to a full stop and start rotating, would it continue rotating eternally? Or would drag from errant plasma slow it?

 

[dauto]

This is a legitimate question. But you should be careful with your words. Perpetual machine questions are banned from these fora.

 

[jtbell]

This would not be considered a "perpetual motion machine" in the sense that we mean in our rules, anyway, even if it did continue rotating eternally. A "perpetual motion machine" normally means a device that you can extract energy from, perpetually. There's no way to extract energy from this particular device without slowing it down.

 

[heterotictype1]

What if you had the exterior rotating with a stationary generator in the core?

 

[Drakkith]

What if you had the exterior rotating with a stationary generator in the core?

The outside would slow down and the inside would begin to rotate until the two were rotating at the same speed and no more power would be generated.

 

[paisiello2]

There's no way to extract energy from this particular device without slowing it down.

But it would be a way to store energy, though.

In reality I don't think there is any such thing as a 100% absolute closed system. In this example there would still be gravitational forces, radiation, and interaction with the interstellar medium, even if very small.

 

[berkeman]

As has been stated, we do not discuss PMMs here. Please instead follow the links in the PF Rules instead (See Site Info at the top of the page):

Pseudoscience, such as (but not limited to):

Perpetual motion and "free energy" discussions
http://wiki.4hv.org/index.php/Free_Energy_Debunking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion
http://www.skepdic.com/freeenergy.html
http://www.skepdic.com/perpetual.html