Why don't perpetual motion machines ever work? - Netta Schramm
-
0:08 - 0:11Around 1159 A.D.,
-
0:11 - 0:14a mathematician called
Bhaskara the Learned -
0:14 - 0:20sketched a design for a wheel
containing curved reservoirs of mercury. -
0:20 - 0:22He reasoned that as the wheels spun,
-
0:22 - 0:26the mercury would flow to the bottom
of each reservoir, -
0:26 - 0:30leaving one side of the wheel
perpetually heavier than the other. -
0:30 - 0:35The imbalance would keep
the wheel turning forever. -
0:35 - 0:38Bhaskara's drawing was one of
the earliest designs -
0:38 - 0:40for a perpetual motion machine,
-
0:40 - 0:47a device that can do work indefinitely
without any external energy source. -
0:47 - 0:52Imagine a windmill that produced
the breeze it needed to keep rotating. -
0:52 - 0:57Or a lightbulb whose glow provided
its own electricity. -
0:57 - 1:01These devices have captured many
inventors' imaginations -
1:01 - 1:05because they could transform
our relationship with energy. -
1:05 - 1:09For example, if you could build
a perpetual motion machine -
1:09 - 1:13that included humans as part of its
perfectly efficient system, -
1:13 - 1:16it could sustain life indefinitely.
-
1:16 - 1:18There's just one problem.
-
1:18 - 1:20They don't work.
-
1:20 - 1:22Ideas for perpetual motion machines
-
1:22 - 1:27all violate one or more
fundamental laws of thermodynamics, -
1:27 - 1:30the branch of physics that describes
the relationship -
1:30 - 1:33between different forms of energy.
-
1:33 - 1:37The first law of thermodynamics says
that energy can't be created or destroyed. -
1:37 - 1:42You can't get out more energy
than you put in. -
1:42 - 1:45That rules out a useful
perpetual motion machine right away -
1:45 - 1:50because a machine could only ever
produce as much energy as it consumed. -
1:50 - 1:55There wouldn't be any left over
to power a car or charge a phone. -
1:55 - 2:00But what if you just wanted the machine
to keep itself moving? -
2:00 - 2:02Inventors have proposed plenty of ideas.
-
2:02 - 2:07Several of these have been variations
on Bhaskara's over-balanced wheel -
2:07 - 2:12with rolling balls
or weights on swinging arms. -
2:12 - 2:13None of them work.
-
2:13 - 2:16The moving parts that make one
side of the wheel heavier -
2:16 - 2:21also shift its center of mass downward
below the axle. -
2:21 - 2:23With a low center of mass,
-
2:23 - 2:26the wheel just swings back and forth
like a pendulum, -
2:26 - 2:28then stops.
-
2:28 - 2:30What about a different approach?
-
2:30 - 2:34In the 17th century, Robert Boyle
came up with an idea -
2:34 - 2:36for a self-watering pot.
-
2:36 - 2:39He theorized that capillary action,
-
2:39 - 2:42the attraction
between liquids and surfaces -
2:42 - 2:45that pulls water through thin tubes,
-
2:45 - 2:49might keep the water cycling
around the bowl. -
2:49 - 2:53But if the capillary action is strong
enough to overcome gravity -
2:53 - 2:55and draw the water up,
-
2:55 - 2:59it would also prevent it from falling
back into the bowl. -
2:59 - 3:03Then there are versions with magnets,
like this set of ramps. -
3:03 - 3:07The ball is supposed to be pulled
upwards by the magnet at the top, -
3:07 - 3:09fall back down through the hole,
-
3:09 - 3:11and repeat the cycle.
-
3:11 - 3:14This one fails because like
the self-watering pot, -
3:14 - 3:18the magnet would simply hold
the ball at the top. -
3:18 - 3:20Even if it somehow did keep moving,
-
3:20 - 3:23the magnet's strength
would degrade over time -
3:23 - 3:26and eventually stop working.
-
3:26 - 3:28For each of these machines to keep moving,
-
3:28 - 3:31they'd have to create some extra energy
-
3:31 - 3:34to nudge the system
past its stopping point, -
3:34 - 3:38breaking the first law of thermodynamics.
-
3:38 - 3:40There are ones that seem to keep going,
-
3:40 - 3:43but in reality, they invariably turn out
to be drawing energy -
3:43 - 3:46from some external source.
-
3:46 - 3:49Even if engineers could
somehow design a machine -
3:49 - 3:52that didn't violate the first law
of thermodynamics, -
3:52 - 3:56it still wouldn't work in the real world
because of the second law. -
3:56 - 3:58The second law of thermodynamics
-
3:58 - 4:03tells us that energy tends to spread out
through processes like friction. -
4:03 - 4:06Any real machine would have moving parts
-
4:06 - 4:09or interactions with air
or liquid molecules -
4:09 - 4:12that would generate tiny amounts
of friction and heat, -
4:12 - 4:15even in a vacuum.
-
4:15 - 4:17That heat is energy escaping,
-
4:17 - 4:19and it would keep leeching out,
-
4:19 - 4:21reducing the energy available
to move the system itself -
4:21 - 4:25until the machine inevitably stopped.
-
4:25 - 4:28So far, these two laws of thermodynamics
-
4:28 - 4:31have stymied every idea
for perpetual motion -
4:31 - 4:37and the dreams of perfectly efficient
energy generation they imply. -
4:37 - 4:42Yet it's hard to conclusively say we'll
never discover a perpetual motion machine -
4:42 - 4:47because there's still so much we don't
understand about the universe. -
4:47 - 4:49Perhaps we'll find
new exotic forms of matter -
4:49 - 4:53that'll force us to revisit the laws
of thermodynamics. -
4:53 - 4:59Or maybe there's perpetual motion
on tiny quantum scales. -
4:59 - 5:04What we can be reasonably sure about
is that we'll never stop looking. -
5:04 - 5:08For now, the one thing that seems
truly perpetual is our search.
- Title:
- Why don't perpetual motion machines ever work? - Netta Schramm
- Speaker:
- Netta Schramm
- Description:
-
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-don-t-perpetual-motion-machines-ever-work-netta-schramm
Perpetual motion machines — devices that can do work indefinitely without any external energy source — have captured many inventors’ imaginations because they could totally transform our relationship with energy. There’s just one problem: they don’t work. Why not? Netta Schramm describes the pitfalls of perpetual motion machines.
Lesson by Netta Schramm, animation by TED-Ed.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 05:31
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