Are Scientists Close to Creating a Perpetual Motion Machine?

Looking through brilliant artworks by Leonardo da Vinci, you can come across not only aircraft sketches that were significantly ahead of their time but also weird wheels such as these. Judging by the comments he wrote on those sketches, that, in his opinion, was what “perpetual motion machines” could look like. Humankind had been dreaming about them since the dawn of time. Hypothetically, these machines can work infinitely or even create energy out of nothing!

In this video, I’ll answer the following questions: what is the secret behind the Da Vinci wheels? Did Nikola Tesla really invent the car with an infinite energy generator?

[DenisKz]

Forget about perpetual motion, materials degrade over time, but it is possible to create a super efficient energy generator, . That is the mindset that we all need to be in.

[ComicalRealm]

Maybe the real perpetual motion machines were the friends we made along the way

[therockgibbralter]

i mentioned a perpetual motion machine to a friend of mine, and his reaction was classic, "don't worry about perpetual, just get close"

[luckytime]

Every time I see a perpetual motion/energy clickbait I instantly think “they never took physics, thermal analysis, mechanics of materials, static’s, or thermodynamics.” Lol

[zachcrawford]

I don't really care that these aren't perpetual motion, the idea that even a long time ago people built machines that could passively harvest ambient energy gradients in their surrounding environment to do useful things is really cool.

[nermanus]

The goal is to create a perpetual-ish motion machine. If I could get a car that runs on "nothing" for 70 years, that's close enough.

[chaellExE]

For the machine at 2:27 to work almost infinite without the need of an initial push and energy loss, the balls will have to be solid with one half of it being made from a material that is lighter than the other half and the total weight has be to equal to the force on the other end of the crescent shape towards the edge to make the machine turn when all balls expect for that one are in the center. And because the balls the balls are made from from different material, the heavy part of it, wil always be pulled towards the bottom by gravity, making it always have the kinetic energy in order to keep the flow. However, in theory there is also the possibility that the balls will cancel eachother out due to balancing, but this is also true for the initial machine as seen in 2:32. And because of this, the each of the balls are made to have enough force to break out this equilibrium, the requirement for the total mass is included.

[Personally I think this the requirement for each half. But I have no way to ensure that this math. Weight 1st half = 0.5 to 2/3 total mass. Weight 2nd half = 0.25 to 1/6 of total mass. And the mould cast 0.25 tot 1/6 of the total mass. The needed weight for is each ball is calculated by the force (mass = weight * gravity) 1 ball needs in order to breakout of the equilibrium of all balls are balanced or all except one or all balls except one are in the middle.]


Edit: added the timestamps and some explanation.

[Axiomatic]

Perpetual motion will likely be forever impossible but I just love the designs that people have come up with over the centuries.

[christianeaster]

You might be able to make a machine that would move perpetually if you could assemble it in a frictionless environment. The problem is even if you could it could perform no useful work. Any time it was accessed for work, it remove energy and thus would slow and then stop.

[MrWildbill]

When I was a kid a friend and I had the idea for a go-cart powered by a starter motor geared not just to the wheels but also to an alternator and a car battery to kick it off, figured once we got going the alternator would power the motor. My dad come out to the garage one day to see what we were up to, he commended our initiative and then destroyed our dream with something he called thermodynamics. Actually we built it anyway and it ran as long as the battery was connected so we still had a lot of fun even if disconnecting the battery brought it to a near immediate stop, sigh.

[jesse]

"Create energy out of nothing" is an interesting possibility. I'm not an expert but I would say that's impossible.

[sighterinfo]

The most gifted thinkers in history are fascinated by perpetual motion because we intuitively know it can be created. We just haven't solved the puzzle yet. It is enigmatic and elusive and seems bound by our current understanding of physics. Magnetism paired with chaos theory IMO will eventually reveal the science of infinite usable energy. Our reaction when it is finally demonstrated will be: "Oh, of course. Who'd have thunk it."

[fvckyoutubescensorshipandt]

TLDW: No. Probably the closest we'll come is using a blackhole as a flywheel for energy extraction, and even that isn't infinite or forever.

[tombox]

For perpetual motion to work, you must incorporate a honey bee collecting pollen into your design...

[hellbent]

Its unfair that the definition of perpetual motion starts to change from a physics issue to a material issue once you start getting closer to actually succeeding. If you defy the law conservation of energy and thermodynamics, your machine is starting to succeed but now it fails because the material itself doesn't last forever. Hence the definition has changed. Perpetual was never defined as a machine that couldn't be created because no material can last forever. If you make a machine that can operate on its own until it's materials wear out (such as a magnetic bearing) that can take 200+ years to wear out under its own friction...that (to me) is still a perpetual motion machine. Because it runs on its own until its mechanical parts fail decades later. Otherwise, perpetual motion doesn't fail because of the laws of physics. It fails because it's impossible to make a man made material for the project that can last forever regardless of physics.

[jdnaveen]

What's the secret behind perpetual motion?
Me- editor, hidden batteries

[gercoa]

if the universe itself can't do perpetual motion, neither can we.

[sugardumplings]

Perpetual Motion happens to us everday in every Atom. Electrons that spins around the atoms nucleus is perpetual motion.

[topspeedk]

Lol to save the time of watching this, the answer to the title question is... "No".
It should really be titled " The history of failed perpetual motion machines"

[seanorourke]

Unfortunately since everything decays, we will never have perpetual motion by definition.