"The Oxford Electric Bell does not demonstrate perpetual motion. The bell will eventually stop when the dry piles are depleted of charge"
Yes, and the Earth revolving around the Sun is not perpetual motion, despite the fact that it has been happening for billions of years and will continue to happen for billions more. Score one more for the pendants! :D
Its not pedantry. The significant thing about "perpetual motion" is how it would violate (and, hence, disprove) what are currently understood, on very strong evidence, to be physical laws. So, its a pretty key distinction.
I guess the thing that struck me about the perpetual motion line is how unintentionally(?) trollish it was. It invites debate. It would be better to omit it.
It's like a web form that asks your email address followed by "We never ever sell your personal information to anyone!!11!" It raises a question I wasn't even considering and now I'm not sure I trust it! http://goo.gl/PaXG5g
> Yes, and the Earth revolving around the Sun is not perpetual motion, despite the fact that it has been happening for billions of years and will continue to happen for billions more.
Well, circular motion does not cause any work to be done, so that's not quite the same thing. The earth might continue spinning around the sun forever in a perfect universe, but that still wouldn't violate conservation of energy.
That part got me as well. Sure it isn't technically perpetual motion but I wonder if maybe it could be considered "near perpetual" or "relatively perpetual" from a selfish human point of view.
So if motion lasts longer than your lifetime, doesn't it seem like perpetual motion to you? Personally, when I think of perpetual motion, the first thing that comes to mind is using it to power a generator. In that context, if something could produce electricity for decades without being refueled or even attended to, aren't we moving toward and/or operating with a realm that feels like perpetual motion--even if it is only from our self centered point of view? Granted, this is sort of like if someone is in your field of view and then steps behind a tree that obscures your view of them, you can say they are invisible to you. Though it isn't exactly true to say they have gained the power of invisibility, you labeling them as being invisible is a self centered and relative statement.
So as self centered humans, from our point of view any motion which lasts years or even decades--and could be harnessed--could seem sort "effectively perpetual" to us, even though it is nowhere near actually perpetual.
(Yes, this theory ignores that fact that that generator's output would indeed be ridiculously low, probably close to unmeasurable--the important part is that if we have motion, we assume we can generate electricity. And yes, even if you could make this happen, it may take thousands or even millions of these together just to power an LED. I was probably prompted of this thought because of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hwLHdBTQ7s)
I think there's a lot of illusion here because not only is the energy being consumed at a terribly slow pace, you also can't "see" it being consumed. If you could watch the battery run down, and see that it was now only "half full" (or whatever fraction of the charge currently remains) as opposed to a hundred years ago, it would be less magical.
For a similarly long-running process, consider underground coal fires. If a seam of coal is burning, it may take hundreds of years to burn itself out, comparable to the lifetime of the ringing bell. But because it is consuming its fuel in a much more obvious fashion, it's less magical.
It's unfortunate that it doesn't estimate when that might be. As the 'internet of things' becomes more and more important, I can think f many applications for very long-lived low-voltage batteries in places that might not be suitable for solar panels or have access to wired power.
"The Oxford Electric Bell does not demonstrate perpetual motion. The bell will eventually stop when the dry piles are depleted of charge"
Yes, and the Earth revolving around the Sun is not perpetual motion, despite the fact that it has been happening for billions of years and will continue to happen for billions more. Score one more for the pendants! :D