A clever “perpetual motion” device [video]

How delightful. I was 99% sure even before I clicked that it would be Steve Mould.<p>Loved his parody of the fixed grin of Technology Connections.

This circuit is awfully complex.... it&#x27;s possible to do the same with a far simpler circuit if you use the same coil for sensing and accelerating the ball.<p>A small microcontroller could do both - perhaps even with low enough power that the whole circuit could stay turned on for years on a charge (when not flinging the ball).<p>Looking at the total energy you need to impart on the ball, you should be able to do that with a far smaller coil and many fewer capacitors as long as you have a suitably shaped steel core to keep the flux path low. I suspect you might be able to do it with no capacitors at all, since modern lithium cells are perfectly happy to deliver 100 amps for a few milliseconds.

Be aware that most of the cheap knockoffs just use a motorized wheel. For example, see the videos on <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B09VTJ4LZ8&#x2F;#ive-videos-for-this-product-widget_feature_div" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B09VTJ4LZ8&#x2F;#ive-videos-for-this-pr...</a>

Brings back childhood memories. Enjoyed reading about these and the accompanying illustrations as a kid from the excellent book Physics for Entertainment by Yakov Perelman. Nirantara Chalana Yantralu they were called in Telugu translation.

Was anyone else hoping it would detect the ball by simply completing a circuit (since the rails are metal and so is the ball)? Then it could give a magnetic tug after an appropriate time. Maybe this would be flaky because of the poor contact between rails and a rolling ball, but an inductive proximity sensor feels like overkill.

Steve Mould is top-notch

Its cool, but it seems kind of obvious how it would work. Uou can tell the ball is speeding up at the wrong times. It&#x27;d be cooler if they could make the motion look more natural.

Excellent presentation, no dumb graphics, witticism, silly voices or stupid faces pulled etc, just nice clean explanation.<p>Nice toy too. I&#x27;d get one but I&#x27;d turn it on 3 times then get bored and give it away.

I like the idea that the laws of physics allow us to draw conclusions with certainty, despite what our eyes observe: we are sure it&#x27;s no perpetual device, since science says it&#x27;s impossible.<p>Exactly with the Sun: our eyes observe that Sun goes around Earth, but science tells us otherwise.<p>Reminds me of the definition of Faith in the Holy Scriptures: &quot;the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen.&quot; (Hebrews 11:1) Yes, there are realities that exist beyond what we can see, that we can deduce with reasoning.<p>Edit: typo

Huh, I&#x27;d always assumed the ball simply closed a circuit when it rode on the rails, and that&#x27;s how it knew when to turn the magnet on and off, with suitable delays. It does seem to me you could still do it that way, but it&#x27;d probably be more difficult.

I wonder if the creator of this device William Le [1] has managed to make this his full-time endeavor.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.etsy.com&#x2F;shop&#x2F;backtonaturedecor" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.etsy.com&#x2F;shop&#x2F;backtonaturedecor</a>

This got me wondering if it could be made to be entirely mechanical. Like, the approaching ball triggers something to move in front of the magnet &#x27;switching it off&#x27;, then slides away again when the ball has passed, ready for the next run.<p>I think I just invented perpetual motion...

I thought it was going to be a railgun

Could this work as a magnetic rail with earth magnets? Would that not require any batteries then?

Ooh, I&#x27;d love to find one of these on Ali, but their search is betraying me currently.

The circuit is awfully complex

Damn I kinda want to build little doohickeys and sell them on etsy instead of going to work every morning

The video is worth just for his expression at 1:07. Highly recommended. Have no interest in the topic and watched the whole thing!

Lost it at the &quot;through the magic of buying two of them&quot; bit!

Steve makes an interesting statement when he says &quot;we know that perpetual motion is not possible&quot;. Yet we have a modification to the general cosmological view with the theoretical entity &quot;dark energy&quot; which if you consider what is said about it properties, it provides a means of creating a &quot;perpetual motion&quot; environment.<p>So what can we say: Does perpetual motion exist or not?