The perpetual futility in trying to circumvent the laws of physics through attempts at building the perpetual motion machines

In my first year in college, I had a mechanical engineering student as a roommate. He spends his spare time drawing up various blueprints and building prototypes of a perpetual motion machine. He was so passionate about it that it earned him the nickname, The Perpetual Motion Machine of the First Kind. I agree it was a mouthful, but if you have as much time as we do in our first year in college, you can pronounce that name in a heartbeat.

^{Flickr Image Licenced under CC BY-SA 2.0 Source: Water wheel-driven gasoline-making perpetual-motion machine picture by Darron Birgenheier}

Just like its name says, a perpetual motion machine is a machine that will run (or spin) forever without the need for input. The classic perpetual motion machine does not just spin; it produces useful work. That energy should be enough to overcome losses in the system such as air resistance, friction, etc.
That invariably means it produces more energy than is put in and can run (without additional energy input) until the machine fails.

The machine sometimes is referred to as "free energy machines." They create energy. But is it possible to build a machine that runs forever without the application of external force? Or are they the snake oil salesmen of the engineering world?

Let us find out.

Past attempts at building a perpetual motion machine

History is an excellent place to start in the quest for a perpetual motion machine.

Going back to the 12th century, in 1159, an Indian astronomer and mathematician known as Bhaskara the Learned invented the wheel. The wheel design has curved reserviours filled with mercury. The mercury was expected to flow to one end and make it heavier than the other side of it, thereby giving wheel, known as Bhāskara's wheel the ability to forever move without the supply of an external force.

Other design of perpetual motion machines takes a form or layout of this Bhaskara's wheel. For instance, the curved wheel with ballbearing staggered across the spokes to make one side heavier than the other to induce rotation.

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In the 17th Century, the Irish chemist, natural philosopher, and physicist, Robert Boyle, who is famous for his work on gases, especially the one named after him, Boyle's Law, has an idea for a perpetual motion machine.

The design is to have a flask that freely replenished the water on it through the syphon.

The flask and its syphon are meant to make forever water flow. Unfortunately, this like other attempts at building a perpetual motion machine did not work. It is impossible because the syphon needs its "output" to be lower than its "input".

The self-flowing flask is a flawed system that involves the hydrostatic paradox.

If you had made the mistake of leaving a towel dangling from a full bath of water, you will notice you would have a wet floor. The water through capillary action will climb upwards (same way water flows from ground through the roots to other parts of a plant) through the towel. Some inventors tried to use this concept in creating the perpetual motion machine in the forever flowing water.

The hydrostatic paradox looks at the situation where the small quantity of a liquid will balance a large amount of liquid, a subject often suggested for the actualisation of perpetual motion.

Sadly, this does not work. The paradox stems from the fact that it seemed like the perfectly reasonable thing to occur. But instead the Aristotelian principle of "water finding its level" is what happens. That is the water on the left and right of the flask attained the same level and remained that way. A capillary action that is strong enough to draw the water over the syphon will also keep the water from flowing off the syphon.

The problem with all the ideas brought up for a perpetual motion machine is that violate one crucial law of physics: the principle of thermodynamics. It describes the relationship between various forms of energy.

The first law of thermodynamics which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed but can only be transformed (changed) from one form or the other.

In other words, it is impossible to get more output energy than the input. The fundamental principle of perpetual motion machine is that you can get more out than you put in. That was a flawed physics principle.

So when next someone approaches you with the idea to finance his next project of the perpetual motion machine, remember the first law of thermodynamics which states that you cannot get something from nothing and tell the "inventor" a no. You can thank me later.

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^References

• ^{Wikipedia:Bhāskara}

• ^{Water Seeks Its Own Level}

• ^{Wikipedia: History of Perpetual Motion Motion Machine}

• ^{Perpetual Motion Machines: Working Against Physical Laws}

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