Has anyone ever built one of these?

yes i was but now forget it totally

 

There is no such thing as perpetual motion. Mankind has been working on these kind for hundreds of years and with no success. If it was that easy our energy crises would be over.

 

I forget which law of physics it was that said something like: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it is only converted from one form to another.

So, you can't get more power out than you put in.

 

Thermodynamics is what the name of the song is called.

 

...and if there really is energy coming from some unknown source you can bet we'll end up paying for it, probably with our lives

 

Even when the energy is coming from a known source (middle east) some pay with their lives.

Bob

 

The Universe is overflowing with energy. Just look at the number of stars that go nova each year! What a waste of energy that is. Fortunately, all but one of the possible star candidates for nova-hood is located a safe distance from Earth.

Our Sun, about 93,000,000 miles away (more or less) is moderately safe from going nova anytime soon, and it definitely provides just enough energy to keep this planet comfortable, compared to say the Moon, Venus, Mercury, or Mars. And of course all the outer planets are too far from the sun to receive enough energy to support human life as we know it. If we ever make it into Outer Space as a species, we are somehow going to need to make nuclear fusion work on a small enough scale to take along with us.

There is absolutely no need to look further than the daylight outside your door for an inexhaustible source of "free" energy, provided by a gravity-contained thermonuclear reactor that runs unattended 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and 365+ days per year without maintenance or the need for fuel replenishment in our life time. The Sun, of course, is not portable using current technology,.hence the need to develop our own (smaller) fusion reactors.

Space is FULL of energy, but there is no need to exploit it just yet. What is needed is the exploitation and the fair and equitable distribution of what we already have. I have never met anyone who fully realizes the magnitude of wealth our Earth possesses. Or anyone who even comprehends the size of the Earth. We humans are limited by our visual horizon in terms of comprehension and imagination. The old idea that the Earth is flat, or the newer one that we are running out of "natural resources," is absurd. Except for helium, which leaks from the atmosphere and is lost forever to Outer Space (unless we build space ships to retrieve it), Earth contains everything it is has accumulated during the last few billion years, including substantial deposits of iridium from meteor impacts. As for mining its mineral wealth, we have literally barely scratched its surface. What the human race lacks is imagination and coordination of effort to avoid transforming Earth into an uninhabitable space ship hurtling through the Milky Way Galaxy, dragged along by the Sun and rest of the solar system.

IMHO, this thread belongs in the woo-woo junk thread pile, not in the forum of General Electronics Discussion.