I have an idea for a perpetual motion machine. I know that perpetual motion is impossible, but I want to know why this won't work. Here's my idea, I'm sorry if it's been done before. I got it from playing "The Incredible Machine"

 

First, you've got a ramp. There is a hollow magnetic cylinder at the top with the positive charge facing outwards and the negative charge in. The magnet reaches the bottom of the ramp and hits another ramp, going in the opposite direction. There is a magnet at the end of the second ramp that has the positive side facing up. This repels the magnet up to the top of the ramp where it starts over again. Here is my feeble attemp at ASCII art of my idea:

..../

../

/.....O

l....l\............l

l....l..\..........l

l....l....\........l

l....l......\......l

l....l........\....l

l....l..........\..l

l....l...........l..l

l....l..............l

l....l............./

l....l.........../

l....l........./

l....l......./

l....l...../

l....l.../

l___./

(+)

Edit: I put spaces in my diagram instead of periods. D'oh!

I'm sorry if this is a little hard to understand. I took enrichment science during my second semester of 7th grade and our teacher asked us to come up with a project with magnets.

Can you draw it in MS paint or sth like that?

 

I don't really get your text drawing [nice try though! ]

 

Where [/ which puzzle] did you get the idea from? I want to see!

Since there's no magnets in Incredible Machine

magnet run outta energy??

i like this site:

 

http://www.phact.org/e/dennis4.html

a magnet will nott work in space, because it depends on earth's field, so according to what I hear, earth will switch it's field, the field also weekens, and your machine gets messed up, but that wont happen for another few 100 years or so.

I got the idea for this from just building my own puzzles using those levitation things. I got the idea that I might be able to do that in real life with magnets, so I decided to try. I'll try to whip up a paint document later because I've gotta leave in about 5 minutes.

Edit: My dad just told me that the magnet wouldn't roll down to the second magnet that should repel it upwards because of the magnetic force, so the magnet would get stuck halfway down the second ramp. Is this true?

hmmmmmmmmm, the only problem I see is if the second positively charged magnet will be able to push the ball back up again (hopefully the mmagnets are strong enough), if that works though, it will be cool.

Also, it may be difficult to get the sphere to fall in the right place so it goes over the (+) magnet, and shoots up.

And where the heck are ya gonna get one of these manet spheres anyway???

If you pus a negetively charged magnet close to the 2nd positively charged one, you ma be able to lure, and attract the ball so it goes on the + magnet, and shoots up.

hmmmm, maybe you can make it bounce just for fun.

And where can i get one of these magnet spheres?

Note that magnetic forces do no work. You can't extract any energy from them directly.

 

Good drawing or no, it won't work. Mother nature is a bit of a hard case when it comes to trying to violate the first and/or second laws of thermodynamics.

Can someone explain to me why a magnet won't work in space, please...

oh another question: Can an electric magnet work in space?

Look at my post #5

"a magnet will nott work in space, because it depends on earth's field" I want to know why a magnet depends on earth's field...

a magnet WILL work in space, if it didn`t there`de be no speakers for astonaughts to listen to instructions, non of the 1000`s of electric motors used on the ISS would work, radio would be out of the question. so... do magnets work in space? We`de better hope so!