I'll tell you what the true perpetual motion machine is. If we could just harness the energy devoted to building, marketing, and debunking the impossible, we could give up our dependence on oil and coal
(inventors, don't take that literally).
The Toronto Star has a gentle profile of Canadian inventor Thane Heins, who has spent the last 20 year building a machine he believes can essentially create more power than is put into the system. He's a classic dreamer, sympathetic if you're sympathetic to the type – he's a university dropout, a chef who has lost his wife and custody of his kids through his obsession, who is desperately seeking recognition.
Never mind that his work, if it does what he says, breaks the laws of physics. He knows that. He's hoping someone will see through their skepticism, and help him fund his company. The article tells of showing the invention to MIT professor
Markus Zahn, who certainly isn't about to say it breaks any physical laws, but is willing to consider that it might help make engines more efficient.
It's a good read. Just keep in mind that people have been trying to make perpetual motion machines for hundreds of years, and so far, no one's managed to overturn those laws of physics yet.
Turning physics on its ear [TheStar.com]
(Image: Perpetual motion machines aren't granted patents in the US, but this one got through. Credit: USPatentLaw.com)
