I built this perpetual motion machine that generates electricity. It’s an idea I saw in a viral video on social media where you supposedly get free energy, and I replicated it exactly to put it to the test.
source.image: EL ANGELITO
Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source.
Like all perpetual-motion machines, Bhaskara’s wheel is a long-discredited mechanism. To truly overbalance the wheel (so that torque in one direction is greater than the other) and cause motion, the radius of the spokes would have to be altered throughout the course of the wheel’s motion.
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This would have to be done actively, thus consuming energy in the process — and so the machine would cease to be a perpetual-motion engine. It’s also important to consider the wheel as it moves, as it can be placed into an overbalanced position so that the math makes it appear that there is an overall torque. It is perfectly possible for the wheel to exert a motion if it is placed off balance (much in the same way a pendulum will swing if moved out of a perfectly vertical position), but that motion does not continue indefinitely and will eventually be counteracted.
