Is Perpetual Motion Truly Impossible or Simply Misunderstood?

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The discussion centers on the concept of perpetual motion, which is widely regarded as impossible due to the laws of physics, particularly the conservation of energy. Participants express a fascination with the idea, suggesting that while traditional perpetual motion machines fail, natural systems like the solar system and atomic vibrations exhibit continuous motion. There's a belief that innovative approaches, such as utilizing space environments or superconductors, could lead to self-sustaining systems that mimic perpetual motion. However, the consensus remains that true perpetual motion, as defined by free energy extraction without loss, contradicts established scientific principles. The conversation encourages open-minded exploration of possibilities while acknowledging the limitations imposed by current understanding.
  • #31
Hi

I found an interesting idea on the Classical forum calld the Maxwell demon. It is an experiment that produces elctrical current from a singel heat reserver. It looks a bit like propetual motion but I recommend you check it out for your selfs.
 
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  • #32
But is not the paradox of the Maxwell demon been explained by the fact that there is an external observer -the demon- that manipulates the information?

Regards
EP
LENIN said:
Hi

I found an interesting idea on the Classical forum calld the Maxwell demon. It is an experiment that produces elctrical current from a singel heat reserver. It looks a bit like propetual motion but I recommend you check it out for your selfs.
 
  • #33
Epsilon Pi said:
Did you know that it is possible to use Euler Relation

Thanks. I am not aware of this. Is this a math concept in need of a physical meaning?
I learned that complex number system always implies rotational transformation and suitable for the analysis of generalized periodic functions and Euler's relation also connects the trig functions to the exponential function.

What I am trying to understand is the physical meaning of i = - \frac{1}{i} whose square is -1 = -1.

The algebra that I am developing to which I named them as H+ and H- has no identity and hence no inverse in multiplication operation although it's always commutatitve. Because of these, it does not satisfy all the group properties. It is more like a ring except for a scalar factor of integers.
 
  • #34
The successive raising of power of the imaginary number i indicates a constant cyclic permutation of 1, i, -1, -i.

i^0 = 1
i^1 = i
i^2 = -1
i^3 = -i
--------------------
i^4 = 1
i^5 = i
i^6 = -1
i^7 = -i
--------------------
i^8 = 1
i^9 = i
i^{10} = -1
i^{11} = -i

If there is a relationship between raising power and dimension then the 4th dimension of SR and GR and 11th dimension of superstring is just a cyclic repeatition of imaginary powers.There seems to be some kind of abstract perpetual motion in the imaginary domain of physical reality.
 
  • #35
the demon

The Demon will always fail in trying to go against the laws of nature since he (the Demon - reading Hans Christian von Baeyer's book "Maxwell's Demon) did not make or created these laws. Only the creator of the laws is able to change these laws. But reading Paul Davies' "The Mind of God," seems to imply that the spontaneity implied in these laws does not need for a creator. But it is our inability to know exactly by measurement because of the uncertainty in location and velocity that give rise to the spontaneity at the outset.
 
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  • #36
Spontaneity is the same as being free. Free to come into being. Free to act. Free from any coercion. Free to choose. Free to say. Free to move in any selected direction. Free to exist. When nature's freedom is threaten then nature will stop to exist. But nature always counter this threat with its inherent principles of conservation laws (energy, linear momentum, angular, momentum, baryon number, lepton number, CPT theorem, etc.).
 
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  • #37
The act of measurement is a threat to nature's freedom. Nature counters this threat with its Heisenberg's uncertainty of position and linear momentum and Einstein's uncertainty of energy and time.
 
  • #38
EE uses complex numbers as its "bread and butter" tool, and specially for that remarkable property they have to convert differential equations into "simple" algebraic equations; and of course they are suitable for the analysis of generalized periodic functions, by means of Fourier theorem, in the so-called Sygnal Analysis in the frequency domain, where we find too, the two kinds of symmetry: even and odd.
Sometimes it has been said that QM is so difficult to grasp for the human mind because it violates our intuition, so in a certain sense this could be applied to EE, so I don't think it is the point.
I have been wondering since a long time ago if the difficulty does not lie in the fact that complex numbers have not been taken seriously to represent physical reality at those basic levels of QM? In fact it started with the Schrodinger wave equation, but is it not true that road was abandoned, in that moment the aim was put to explain the behavior not of the electron or Fermions that seem to have associated a non conservative field, but the bosons, that in a certain sense have associated a conservative field, such as those asociated with electric charges and gravitation.
Are we not explaining the whole by the part? Is not this a tendency of our need to make closed systems, so we can control and predict, and aspire so to a nobel prize?

Regards

EP

Antonio Lao said:
Thanks. I am not aware of this. Is this a math concept in need of a physical meaning?
I learned that complex number system always implies rotational transformation and suitable for the analysis of generalized periodic functions and Euler's relation also connects the trig functions to the exponential function.

What I am trying to understand is the physical meaning of i = - \frac{1}{i} whose square is -1 = -1.

The algebra that I am developing to which I named them as H+ and H- has no identity and hence no inverse in multiplication operation although it's always commutatitve. Because of these, it does not satisfy all the group properties. It is more like a ring except for a scalar factor of integers.
 
  • #39
Square root of minus one is just a symbol to separate two different orders of reality so that we do not sum apples and pearls: it is that symbol the one that establishes the rules with complex numbers; it is that symbol the one that makes it possible the rationalization of duality.
Regards
EP
Antonio Lao said:
What I am trying to understand is the physical meaning of i = - \frac{1}{i} whose square is -1 = -1.
 
  • #40
I don't believe you understood corectly. The demon is not actualy a creture in the case I have found it is for instence a magnetic field. I would really advice you to look it up. https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=28623&page=4&pp=15

But any way I don't really believe it works becouse there probably is a lose of electrons somwher in the process
 
  • #41
LENIN said:
The demon is not actualy a creture

I agree. The demon is really any scientific theory that attempts to break the natural laws of the universe. For example, travel forward or backward in time, perpetual motion machine, heat flow from low temperature to high temperature, etc.
 
  • #42
Doesnt a black hole gobble up everything basically acting as a self maintaining collector of mass and energy. How long does a black hole exist from point of formation? Couldnt something like that be considered perpetual motion if it can keep adding to itself and sustain itself?
 
  • #43
LENIN said:
I have found it is for instence a magnetic field

In quantum vacuum, the ratio of electric field to magnetic field is the speed of light.

c=\frac{E}{B}

If B is slightly greater than E then mass is created and the ratio is less than light speed. If B is slightly less than E then space expands and the ratio is greater than light speed.
 
  • #44
mapper said:
Doesnt a black hole gobble up everything basically acting as a self maintaining collector of mass and energy.

A black hole is the result of an exploding star if its mass before the explosion met certain conditions. It is the original star that gobble matter by way thru the accretion disc for some binary stellar systems.

After a black hole is formed, it creates an event horizon which curved the surrounding spacetime structure for more falling matter and energy. But Hawking radiation prevent complete domination by the black hole on its vicinity of influence.
 
  • #45
Hi Antonio and others,

A physical meaning of i.i = -1?
If we take i, as a symbol for differentiating two different orders of reality, then we have:
- on the one hand an axis affected by i, and
- on the other an axis 90 degrees apart, not affected by i
or else we have the complex plane, where multiplication and division(differentiation and integration) can be interpreted as a rotation of 90 degrees. The complex plane can be taken then as the canvas where the dynamic complexity of the real can be represented.
Is this not a physical meaning?
Regards
EP
Antonio Lao said:
What I am trying to understand is the physical meaning of i = - \frac{1}{i} whose square is -1 = -1.
 
  • #46
Epsilon Pi,

Thanks. The physical reality of complex numbers seems to indicate the fundamental reality of orthogonal axes.
 
  • #47
Perpetual motion...
This reminds me of life because if energy weren't given up, then things couldn't
grow and evolve. The cold heart of the Earth, that steals your breath in the
night, gives up it's own breath to the hope of the future. Nothing in this place
is ever lost... THAT IS PERPETUAL MOTION
 
  • #48
The third included?

Yes, you are quite right, in fact, is not life an open dynamic system, continually exchanging with the environment, so that "extra" -that seems to violate that second law of thermodynamics- that makes it possible to conceive a whole greater than the sum of its parts, comes precisely from that "perpetual" interchange?
Did you know that there is a mainstream in biology that is now using that triadic framework introduced by that great north american philosopher Charles Pierce?
I was wondering if this has not to do with that same need I have felt to understand and comprehend, not just the closed systems of normal science, but those open systems of reality "out there"?
Is not a triadic symbolism a symbolism in which the third is included? Don't we have in Euler relation that third included in that radical duality it represents?
Just some thoughts regarding the third included
Regards
EP
PD: Is not the inclusion of the third another point of view different from the now prevailing in modern physics or in normal science?



grabateetrap said:
Perpetual motion...
This reminds me of life because if energy weren't given up, then things couldn't
grow and evolve. The cold heart of the Earth, that steals your breath in the
night, gives up it's own breath to the hope of the future. Nothing in this place
is ever lost... THAT IS PERPETUAL MOTION
 
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  • #49
Perpetual motion occurs all the time.
According to Newton a mass will keep moving at the same speed
unless it is disturbed by a force.
I could explain why but my explanation might be too "interesting" for the mentors
on theory development!
 
  • #50
a body in motion will stay in motion unless an external force is acting upon it

in real world this translates into friction slowing down your car the (friction = coeff of friction * mass * acceleration due to gravity)

now if you start thinking of Newton's law of motion in terms of general relativity and whole universe, you might get ahead of yourself and invest some new hypothesis which won't be based on any experimental data. you are probably thinking of suggesting that the universe itself is like a spongy membrane that is in motion in multiple dimensions with several dimensions for time. it could make for a great sci fi movie (even Men in Black did a great ending playing with universe in a form of little balls)
 
  • #51
cronxeh said:
a body in motion will stay in motion unless an external force is acting upon it
Is this part of Newton's 1st law of motion? If it is then it is constant motion as that of constant velocity. Accelerated motion exist when there is a force.

But the modern view of spacetime's curvature does not clearly describe how this constant velocity can be achieved by objects other than photons.
 
  • #52
do you think there may be perpetual motion in magnets? no energy is put into the magnet and yet it does work by sticking onto the side of the fridge.
 
  • #53
Try to avoid a classical view point. Intuition is not reality. You guys are stuck on a classical perspective that just does not work and does not explain observation. Loren, you know better. Science is hard. You understand the fundamentals, in my opinion. I think you should let go of the philosophical issues and return to the scientific part.
 
  • #54
Chronos said:
You guys are stuck on a classical perspective that just does not work and does not explain observation.
But it is said by the Feynman's version of quantum mechanics that the process of sum over all histories of probabilistic paths: the classical path is the most probable. This is when and where the action integral is the least and the Lagrangian (difference of kinetic and potential energy) is practically zero.
 
  • #55
Furthermore, path can only be defined classically. In QM, path (of an electron) has no meaning as in the problem of trying to understand why there are quantum jumps between energy levels.
 
  • #56
Having absolutely no shred of evidence even close to the idea of perpetual motion, this has, apparently, not deterred it's adherants.
Having seen nothing in nature they say, "well, maybe it is so"
Having no experiment to prove it they yet say, "it can happen"
Having nothing to go further on, they then say "you don't understand my theory"
When challenged to produce facts, they say "it can not be done now, or, there is not enough money, or..."
If you would nail them down to describe a qualitative experiment in support of their idea, they fall silent.
 
  • #57
pallidin said:
Having absolutely no shred of evidence even close to the idea of perpetual motion
One of the mathematical evidences for PM can be found by using a periodic function as an example. The frequency (f) is defined as the inverse of the period (T).

f=\frac{1}{T}

as T approaches infinity, f approaches zero and vice versa. Note that frequency always exist and it even increase almost without bound as the period approaches the limit of zero time.
 
  • #58
D=(c-v)t note that velocity is directional, and this represents space in the line ahead of the path
 
  • #59
do you think there may be perpetual motion in magnets? no energy is put into the magnet and yet it does work by sticking onto the side of the fridge.
 
  • #60
bino said:
do you think there may be perpetual motion in magnets? no energy is put into the magnet and yet it does work by sticking onto the side of the fridge.
In current modern physics, the existence of magnetic field is due to the motion (PM?) of charged particles. But there are now at least three different kinds of charges: the electric charge, the weak charge, the strong or color charge. The motion of all these charges create its respective kind of magnetism, electric magnetism, weak magnetism, and color magnetism. The magnetism that caused fridge sticking might be just electric or combination of all three types.

Regardless of the type or kind of magnetism responsible for fridge sticking, the interaction forces are very much larger than the force from the surrounding gravitational field.

The mystery behind the explanation of charge to mass ratio remains. What is the independent meaning of charge or of mass? This still is not fully clarified in physics.
 
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