Imagine that your mobile phone never discharges, motorists do not know the word "refueling", and artificial organs last longer than real ones. Today even children know that you have to pay for everything, and in school they teach that nothing comes from nothing. However, several hundred years ago, scientists argued that train passengers would certainly die of suffocation in rarefied air, and cows miscarried at the sight of cars. Times change. What is eternity? Time of existence of the Universe? There is more than enough energy in it. Is it really impossible to build an engine that uses the hidden reserves of the universe, with a warranty period "until the next Big Bang?"
An unattainable dream of any engineer. Philosopher's stone of mechanics. A tool of clever scammers and an attribute of many fantastic works. Meet: perpetual motion machine.
Impossible is possible
Perpetual motion is possible. At least, it does not contradict quantum mechanics and Newton's first law (a material point remains at rest or uniform motion until external influences change this state). Not so long ago, astronomers at the University of Minnesota discovered in space the "great nothingness" - empty space with a length of about a billion light years. If we imagine that there are no interactions in it, then a stone thrown there would move with constant speed until the death of the universe. That is, in fact, forever.
However, when it comes to a perpetual motion machine, we usually mean a system that produces more energy than it consumes (losing it on friction, air resistance, etc.), so that it can be used for any household needs. Before the invention of steam or electric drives muscles were the only universal and mobile source of energy. Spring and pendulum mechanisms were suitable only for applying a small force for a long time (hours). The most powerful stationary engines were water and windmills.
This greatly limited the mechanics. For example, in the Middle Ages it was not difficult to build a ceiling fan or an escalator, but who could spin them non-stop all day long? It is quite logical that people dreamed of a "free" source of energy. Their imagination was limited by the technologies of that time, so by today's standards, perpetual motion machines of antiquity looked touching and primitive.
Four Reasons for Misunderstanding
First, the simplest kind perpetual motion machine based on some magical effects. For example, in the novels of Wells, the miracle material "cavorite" with strong anti-gravity properties is mentioned. If you make a wheel, half of which is made of cavorite, it will spin with constant acceleration. In fantasy worlds, a perpetual motion machine is not in demand, because instead of constructing a bulky mechanism, you can always create a permanent spell (cleaning the room in Disney's The Magician's Apprentice, or a pot that boils an infinite amount of porridge in Andersen's fairy tale).
Perpetuum mobile of the second type - " impossible mechanism"- acts with a deliberate violation of the laws of nature and is purely speculative in nature. good example such a paradoxical construction is the watermill by the Dutch artist Maurice Escher (1898-1972).
To the third - subjective The type of perpetual motion machine includes a unit that works for so long that even a few human lives will not be enough to practically refute its “eternity”. The source of energy here is usually some kind of "eternal" natural phenomena.
For example, the watch Atmos» by the Swiss company Jaeger-LeCoultre operate from daily fluctuations in air temperature. They are filled with ethyl chloride, which expands when heated and winds up the spring. To minimize friction, the torsion pendulum rotates only 1 revolution per minute (150 times slower than conventional watches). A difference of 1 degree is enough for the clock to run for two days. Theoretically, this watch can survive more than one owner. But in practice guarantee period service different models"Atmos" is 20-30 years old.
tick tockThe University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand) has mechanical watches built by Arthur Beverley in 1864. They start from changes in atmospheric pressure and daily temperatures. The clock has been running for 143 years. This experiment is considered the longest in the world, but the term "subjective perpetuum mobile" is not applicable here. They were stopped several times for cleaning, repairing breakdowns, and also in those rare cases when the average daily temperature and pressure were stable. The oldest working clock in the world is considered to be the chimes of the cathedral in Salisbury (UK), installed around 1386. |
The next type of device that can be mistaken for a perpetual motion machine is deliberately complicated long-acting mechanisms that perform some primitive task. It is difficult for the average person to understand the purpose and principles of their work.
Faced with such a "perpetual motion machine", you can be 99% sure that its "inventor" - rogue. Excessive design complications are needed only to confuse the observer and hide the real source of movement (usually a powerful spring hidden in the hollow axis of a gear).
Suspicious types
Physicists classify perpetual motion machines into two types.
Any machine that has received energy produces work and (or) heat equivalent to it. If there is more work or heat than energy, we are dealing with a perpetual motion machine. first type- the most popular among inventors. Let's imagine that some dark genius put an unbalanced wheel on a miracle bearing. It is enough to push it once - and it should spin, accelerating until it shatters into pieces. This is called "violating the law of conservation of energy."
Engine second type completely converts ambient heat into work, ignoring the second law of thermodynamics. Today, there are suggestions that the creation of some semblance of such a device is still possible if we are talking about the transformation of not just heat, but dark energy or dark matter, from which the largest part of our Universe is created.
Eternal history
The first perpetual motion machine was invented almost 9 centuries ago. Indian mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara II proposed to attach to the wheel vessels with mercury, bent in such a way that during rotation it flowed from one end of the vessel to the other. According to his plan, the wheel would spin constantly. Most likely, for the scientist it was only a symbol of the eternal cycle of being (samsara, "flow").
Bhaskara hardly considered his philosophical model to be a perpetual motion machine, but Arab and European researchers took this issue absolutely seriously. The unbalanced wheel has become a classic of perpetual motion. 13th century French architect Villard de Honnecourt used the same scheme, replacing mercury with hammers. In practice, such a wheel will find a point of balance and stop without even making a full turn.
Leonardo da Vinci became interested in the idea of a perpetual motion machine, created several drawings ... and announced that not a single such apparatus would work. He criticized all attempts by inventors to create another "magic wheel", but the idea of the fundamental impossibility of a perpetual motion machine became an axiom only two hundred years later - when in 1775 the Paris Academy of Sciences stopped accepting patent applications for such devices. At the same time, Leonardo left drawings of a water mill rotated by the water raised by it, without providing them with critical comments. Whether he considered a perpetual motion machine on water possible is unknown.
Oh, explorers of perpetual motion, how many vain plans have you created in such searches! Become a better alchemist!
Leonardo da Vinci
The craze for unbalanced wheels has given way to a fashion for closed circuits"device A rotates device B, which moves device A." Philosopher, astrologer and alchemist Mark Antony Zimara(1460-1523), unfamiliar with da Vinci's water mill, described a windmill blown by huge bellows driven by the rotation of the same windmill.
In 1610 the Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel built the first mechanical watch with automatic winding against atmospheric pressure drops. The machine, which was a golden globe and showed not only hours, but also dates with the seasons, seemed to be a real “perpetual motion machine” by the standards of that time. Drebbel became famous as a magician and alchemist.
It is difficult to say how well it was executed (for example, Atmos watches were developed by the best Swiss engineers for several decades). But given that Drebbel was incredibly talented (he built a microscope with two lenses, a submarine for the English Navy, invented a chicken incubator with a thermostat that automatically controlled the temperature, and also tried to create an air conditioner), it is reasonable to assume that his clock could work without breakdowns for many months, if not years.
Alchemists created modern chemistry, and designers of perpetual motion machines created ordinary engines. In 1662, Edward Somerset, Marquis of Worcester (a distinguished theorist in the field of perpetual motion) decided to install the world's first steam engine of his own invention on the tower of Raglan Castle in Wales, raising water through pipes. Unfortunately, he was tight with money, and investors did not dare to invest in such a fantastic project.
End of eternity
The last, brightest period of classical perpetual motion machine building fell on the middle of the 18th century, namely, on life Johann Ernst Elias Bessler(1680-1745), who came up with the pseudonym Orffyreus (Bessler cryptogram)
He was a very strange man - boastful, annoying, boring, with a bad temper and paranoid manners. According to the testimonies that have come down to us, he worked as a watchmaker. In 1712, Bessler claimed to have mastered the secret of perpetual motion. At first, he tried to show a non-stop wheel with a small load to the inhabitants of the small German town of Gera, but the provincials were not impressed by this spectacle.
Bessler began to travel around the country, publishing scientific treatises and building larger models of his engine. For some reason he didn't want to do compact models, and designed wooden wheels with a diameter of about 4 meters. His ebullient activity attracted the interest of scientists. Demonstration models of mega-wheels were carefully examined, but no signs of charlatanism were found.
It was decided to conduct a full-scale experiment. On November 12, 1717, in the presence of authorities, one of the rotating wheels with a diameter of 3.5 meters was placed in the Weissenstein castle room, and all windows and doors were tightly locked. Two weeks later the room was opened. The wheel was still spinning. Then the premises were sealed until January 4, 1718. A year later, people entered the room and saw that the wheel continued to rotate at the same frequency.
It was already interesting. The Royal Society of London wanted to buy the invention. Bessler immediately asked for twenty thousand pounds (giant money at that time). They decided to test the wheel again, but Bessler suddenly flew into a rage and broke his creation - supposedly so that other scientists could not steal his ideas.
The inventor continued to travel around the country, demonstrating various models wheels: rotating only in one direction and stopping only with great effort, as well as rotating in any direction and stopped without any difficulty. In 1727, Bessler's maid claimed that his mechanisms were set in motion by a man from another room. It was never possible to verify these testimony, but the engineer's reputation was forever undermined. Bessler died after falling off a windmill he was building. He left behind incomprehensible cipher notes and forced descendants to wonder - was he a madman, an eccentric genius or a brilliant magician?
| Let there be light |
Isaac Asimov did not approve of the idea of obtaining energy from nothing. He believed that humanity would develop by "burning" the stars. This cannot last forever, but the writer got out of the situation with his usual elegance: in the story "The Last Question", two drunken technicians asked the supercomputer how to reverse entropy and extend the life of the Universe (thus obtaining infinite energy). The supercomputer thought for trillions of years, constantly evolving, and at the end of the world, after the thermal death of the Universe, found the answer and said: "Let there be light." This can be understood as follows: energy is eternal, only it cannot be used forever. Sooner or later, everything will have to start from the beginning. Seeing a clone of his brainchild in action, Charles panicked and fled to New York, where he was exposed by the famous inventor Robert Fulton. The latter noticed that the machine was running intermittently and found a belt drive leading from it to an adjacent room with a man turning a lever. Another American - John Keely(1827-1898) - stated that energy can be extracted from the ether due to the vibrations of a tuning fork. He was accused of fraud and even witchcraft, but the trickster managed to fool investors for 27 years, defrauding them of money to build an industrial model of the engine. Only after Keely fell under a tram did it become clear that his models worked on compressed air. The fraudster broke many laws - but not thermodynamics. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, such devices continued to feed their “inventors” and yellow press workers - with the only difference being that the terms “cosmic fluids” and “all-pervading ether” were replaced by “cold fusion” or “alternative physics”. Sometimes it ended not just badly, but very badly - for example, in 1966, an American Hungarian Joseph Papp(self-proclaimed creator of the jet submarine) tested an engine that ran on a mixture of inert gases. The explosion claimed the life of one person and injured two. But not all such cases were criminal in nature. Quite a serious scientist Thomas Henry Moray(1892-1974) repeatedly demonstrated to everyone the operation of a device that collected "radiant energy from a vacuum" and converted it into electricity. The machine worked for several days in a row. Experts studied it up and down, but no one could find a source of energy. Industrialists wanted to buy it, Moray refused, and the only working copy was destroyed. Later, the scientist complained that he was shot several times, his family was threatened, and the laboratories were periodically vandalized. The secret of the device that collected cosmic energy (whatever it was), the inventor took with him to the grave. The line between genius and insanity is very difficult to draw. Another physicist - Bulgarian Stefan Marinov stated that he visited the commune of the Christian sect "Meternita" (Linden, Switzerland), whose members received "inspiration from above" and built a generator of endless electrical energy called "Testatika". It has been operating for many years, covering the energy needs of the entire community. Shortly after this revelation, Marinov jumped down the stairs in the library of the University of Graz. Conspiracy theorists often think of Stanley Meyer, who was sued for trying to sell a water-powered engine. According to the schemer, weak electrical impulses of a special frequency decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen, which are then used instead of gasoline vapors, and the power car generator enough to continue the decomposition of water. Having made some fortune on this scam, Stanley died suddenly in a restaurant in 1998. Knowledgeable people there is no doubt that he was poisoned by oil magnates and government agents. |
* * *
Nothing lasts forever, not even engines. The noble madmen of the ancient world designed devices they did not understand, and convinced themselves that their machines would work forever. They were replaced by dodgers, who showed miracles of ingenuity only in the field of hiding the real sources of energy for their engines. Today's unrecognized geniuses strive to be "closer to the people", offering the most popular resource - an infinite amount of electricity. In the meantime, while they're fine-tuning their generators, you can buy a video on their website for a few dollars showing a test model in action. It used to be cheaper - to look at the wheel spinning in the barn, it cost only a couple of copper coins.
The largest part of sincere attempts to invent a perpetual motion machine falls on people without much knowledge in physics, but with "golden hands" and suffering from "creative itch". Interestingly, about a third of them are pensioners. In the vast majority of cases, their projects are based on centuries-old ideas, and the authors are not limited to one "invention". Enlightenment comes to them almost every day, so revolutionary drawings come to the patent office not in units, but in kilograms.
In a sense, the perpetual motion machine really exists in the form of its eternal search, and it works in a closed cycle: what medieval naturalists burned themselves on, today again flaunts on test benches. But maybe this is for the best, because once the steam pump was invented just like that, and Archimedes, before shouting “Eureka!”, Was going to just wash himself.
- Perpetuum mobile of the first kind- an engine (an imaginary machine) capable of doing work indefinitely without fuel or other energy resources. Their existence contradicts the first law of thermodynamics. According to the law of conservation of energy
- Perpetuum mobile of the second kind- an imaginary machine that, when set in motion, would turn into work all the heat extracted from the surrounding bodies (see Maxwell's Demon). They contradict the second law of thermodynamics. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, all attempts to create such an engine are doomed to failure.
Story
An Indian or Arabic perpetuum mobile with small obliquely fixed vessels partially filled with mercury.
Attempts to study the place, time and cause of the idea of a perpetual motion machine is a very difficult task. It is no less difficult to name the first author of such an idea. The earliest information about Perpetuum mobile seems to be the mention that we find in the Indian poet, mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara, as well as separate notes in Arabic manuscripts of the 16th century, stored in Leiden, Gotha and Oxford. At present, India is rightfully considered the ancestral home of the first perpetual motion machines. Thus, Bhaskara, in his poem dating from about 1150, describes a kind of wheel with long, narrow vessels, half-filled with mercury, attached obliquely along the rim. The principle of operation of this first mechanical perpetuum mobile was based on the difference in the moments of gravity created by the liquid moving in vessels placed on the circumference of the wheel. Bhaskara justifies the rotation of the wheel in a very simple way: “A wheel thus filled with liquid, being mounted on an axis lying on two fixed supports, continuously rotates by itself.” The first projects of a perpetual motion machine in Europe date back to the era of the development of mechanics, around the 13th century. By the 16th-17th centuries, the idea of a perpetual motion machine was especially widespread. At this time, the number of projects of perpetual motion machines submitted for consideration to the patent offices was growing rapidly. European countries. Among the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci, an engraving with a drawing of a perpetual motion machine was found.
Unsuccessful designs of perpetual motion machines from history
Rice. 1. One of the oldest perpetual motion designs
On fig. 1 shows one of the oldest designs of a perpetual motion machine. It represents a cogwheel, in the recesses of which hinged weights are attached. The geometry of the teeth is such that the weights on the left side of the wheel are always closer to the axle than on the right side. As conceived by the author, this, in accordance with the law of the lever, should have brought the wheel into constant rotation. When rotated, the weights would recline to the right and retain the driving force.
However, if such a wheel is made, it will remain motionless. The differential reason for this fact is that although the weights on the right have a longer lever, on the left there are more of them. As a result, the moments of forces on the right and left are equal.
Rice. 2. The design of a perpetual motion machine based on the law of Archimedes
On fig. 2 shows the device of another engine. The author decided to use Archimedes' law to generate energy. The law is that bodies whose density is less than the density of water tend to float to the surface. Therefore, the author placed hollow tanks on the chain and placed the right half under water. He believed that the water would push them to the surface, and the chain with wheels would thus rotate endlessly.
The following is not taken into account here: the buoyancy force is the difference between the water pressures acting on the lower and upper parts of an object immersed in water. In the design shown in the figure, this difference will tend to push out those tanks that are under water on the right side of the picture. But on the lowest tank, which plugs the hole, only the force of pressure on its right surface will act. And it will exceed the total force acting on the rest of the tanks. Therefore, the whole system will simply scroll clockwise until the water pours out.
Patents and copyright certificates for a perpetual motion machine
Literature
- Voznesensky N. N. About perpetual motion machines. M., 1926.
- Ihak-Rubiner F. perpetual motion machine. M., 1922.
- Kirpichev V.L. Conversations on mechanics. Moscow: GITL, 1951.
- Mah E. The Principle of Preservation of Work: The History and Root of It. SPb., 1909.
- Michal S. Perpetual motion machine yesterday and today. M.: Mir, 1984.
- Ord-Hume A. Perpetual motion. The Story of an Obsession. Moscow: Knowledge, 1980.
- Perelman Ya. I. Entertaining physics . Book. 1 and 2. M.: Nauka, 1979.
- Petrunin Yu. Why didn't the idea of a perpetual motion machine exist in antiquity?// Petrunin Yu.Yu. The ghost of Tsargrad: unsolvable problems in Russian and European culture. - M.: KDU, 2006, p. 75-82
Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
Among the many projects of the "perpetual motion machine" there were many that are based on the floating of bodies in the water. A tall tower 20 meters high is filled with water. Pulleys are installed at the top and bottom of the tower, through which a strong rope is thrown in the form of an endless belt. Attached to the rope are 14 hollow cubic boxes a meter high, riveted from iron sheets so that water cannot penetrate inside the boxes. Our drawings two drawings depict appearance such a tower and its longitudinal section.
The project of an imaginary "perpetual" water engine.
The device of the tower of the previous figure.
How does this setting work? Everyone familiar with the law of Archimedes will realize that the boxes, being in the water, will tend to float up. They are pulled upwards by a force equal to the weight of the water displaced by the boxes, that is, the weight of one cubic meter of water, repeated as many times as the boxes are immersed in water. It can be seen from the drawings that there are always six boxes in the water. This means that the force that carries the loaded boxes up is equal to the weight of 6 m 3 of water, i.e. 6 tons. Pulls them down own weight boxes, which, however, is balanced by a load of six boxes hanging freely on the outside of the rope.
So, a rope thrown in this way will always be subject to a pull of 6 tons applied to one side of it and directed upwards. It is clear that this force will cause the rope to rotate non-stop, sliding along the pulleys, and with each revolution to do work of 6000 * 20 = 120,000 kgm.
Now it is clear that if we dot the country with such towers, then we will be able to receive from them an unlimited amount of work, sufficient to cover all the needs of the national economy. The towers will rotate the anchors of the dynamos and provide electrical energy in any quantity.
However, if you look closely at this project, it is easy to see that the expected movement of the rope should not occur at all.
In order for the endless rope to rotate, the boxes must enter the tower's water basin from below and leave it from above. But after all, entering the pool, the box must overcome the pressure of a column of water 20 m high! This pressure per square meter of the area of the box is equal to neither more nor less than twenty tons (weight of 20 m 3 of water). The upward thrust is only 6 tons, that is, it is clearly insufficient to drag the box into the pool.
Among the many examples of water "perpetual" motion machines, hundreds of which were invented by failed inventors, one can find very simple and ingenious options.
Take a look at the picture. A part of a wooden drum, mounted on an axle, is immersed in water all the time. If the law of Archimedes is true, then the part immersed in water should float up and, as soon as the buoyant force is greater than the friction force on the axis of the drum, the rotation will never stop ...
Another project of the "perpetual" water engine.
Do not rush to build this "perpetual" engine! You will certainly fail: the drum will not budge. What is the matter, what is the error in our reasoning? It turns out that we did not take into account the directions active forces. And they will always be directed along the perpendicular to the surface of the drum, that is, along the radius to the axis. Everyone knows from everyday experience that it is impossible to make a wheel turn by applying force along the radius of the wheel. To cause rotation, it is necessary to apply force perpendicular to the radius, i.e., tangent to the circumference of the wheel. Now it is not difficult to understand why the attempt to implement "perpetual" motion will also end in failure in this case.
The perpetual motion machine has been haunting scientists and engineers for many centuries. Still, the idea of creating a device that will constantly work without wasting energy seems very tempting. Is it possible to create it, scientists say.
What is a perpetual motion machine?
Perpetuum mobile or Perpetuum Mobile is an imaginary device. Some believe that it is theoretically possible to create a machine that will do work indefinitely without spending any energy resources. At the same time, scientists gradually became disillusioned with this idea and recognized that it is better to abandon attempts to create such a device, because they are meaningless. The impossibility of creating a perpetual motion machine is postulated as the first law of thermodynamics. But the idea of a perpetual motion machine is still of great interest.
An ideal perpetual motion machine should work until the end of the Big Freeze (Big Freeze). Proponents of this theory believe that until the end of time, the universe will expand with a very smooth acceleration. This process is called the Great Freeze, and when it is completed, the end of everything will come. When this will happen is not known exactly, but we have an estimate. 100 trillion years. So, a perpetual motion machine must work at least as much to be considered a real perpetual motion machine.
What are perpetual motion machines?
Perpetuum Mobile are divided into engines of the first kind and second kind. Engines of the first kind could function without fuel - and generally without energy costs, which arise, for example, when the parts of the mechanism rub against each other. Engines of the second kind could extract heat from colder surrounding bodies and use this energy in work.
There are many projects on the Internet that claim to be working on the design of a perpetual motion machine. However, if you study these projects carefully, it becomes clear that they are all very far from the idea of a perpetual motion machine. But if someone manages to make such a device, the consequences will be overwhelming. It is believed that we will receive an eternal source of energy - free energy.
Unfortunately, according to the fundamental laws of physics of our Universe, the creation of a perpetual motion machine is impossible.
Why is it impossible to create a perpetual motion machine?
There are probably many people who will say "never say never", especially when it comes to science. To some extent, this is true. But if it turns out that it is possible to create a perpetual motion machine, this will overturn the physics that we know. It turns out that we everything was wrong and none of our previous observations make any sense.
The first law of thermodynamics is the law of conservation of energy. According to this law, energy can neither be created nor destroyed - it simply changes from one form to another. In order to keep the mechanism in constant motion, the applied energy must remain in this mechanism without any loss. This is exactly why the creation of a perpetual motion machine is impossible.
In order to build a perpetual motion machine of the first kind, we must fulfill several conditions:
- The machine should not have any "rubbing" parts, any moving parts should not touch other parts, otherwise there will be friction between them. This friction will eventually cause the machine to lose energy. When parts come into contact, heat is generated, and it is this heat that is energy, lost by car. You will say that then you need to make the device with a smooth surface so that friction does not occur. But this is impossible, since there are no perfectly smooth objects.
- The machine must operate in a vacuum, without air. This comes from the first condition. Operating the machine anywhere will cause it to lose energy due to friction between moving parts and air. Although the energy loss due to air friction is very small, for a perpetual motion machine this is serious problem. If there are even minimal energy losses, the machine will start to stall and eventually come to a complete halt due to these losses, even if it takes a very long time.
- The machine should not make any sounds. Sound is also a form of energy, and if a machine makes any sound, it means that it is also losing energy.
Engines of the second kind, which use the heat of surrounding bodies, do not contradict the law of conservation of energy. However, these cunning constructions are powerless against the second law of thermodynamics: in a closed system, a spontaneous transfer of heat from colder bodies to hot ones is impossible. This requires an intermediary. And for the mediator to work, energy is needed from external source. Moreover, in nature there is no truly reversible
But most importantly, the creation of a perpetual motion machine may be pointless. People expect that if such a device is made, we will get a free source of energy. But is it? In fact, we will receive exactly as much energy as we send to this engine. After all, we remember that according to the laws of physics, which have not yet been refuted, energy cannot be created from nothing, it can only be transformed. So, it turns out that the perpetual motion machine is a useless device.
In 1685, in one of the issues of the London scientific journal"Philosophical Works" was published proposed by the Frenchman Denis Papin, the project of a hydraulic perpetuum mobile, the principle of which was supposed to refute the well-known paradox of hydrostatics. As can be seen from the figure, this device consisted of a vessel that narrowed into a tube in the shape of the letter C, which was bent upwards and with its open end hung over the edge of the vessel.
The author of the project assumed that the weight of water in the wider part of the vessel would necessarily exceed the weight of the liquid in the tube, i.e. in the narrower part. This meant that the liquid, by its weight, would have to squeeze itself out of the vessel into a tube, through which it would again have to return to the vessel, thereby achieving the required continuous circulation of water in the vessel.
How do you suppose why the "perpetual motion machine" works in the video?
Unfortunately, Papen did not realize that the decisive factor in this case is not a different amount (and with it a different weight of the liquid in the wide and narrow parts of the vessel), but, first of all, a property inherent in all communicating vessels without exception: the pressure of the liquid in the vessel itself and the curved tube will always be the same. The hydrostatic paradox is precisely explained by the peculiarities of this essentially hydrostatic pressure.
Also called Pascal's paradox, he claims that the total pressure, i.e. the force with which the liquid presses on the horizontal bottom of the vessel is determined only by the weight of the column of liquid above it, and does not depend at all on the shape of the vessel (for example, on whether its walls narrow or expand) and, therefore, on the amount of liquid.
The victims of such delusions were sometimes even people who worked at the very forefront of contemporary science and technology. An example is Denis Papin himself (1647-1714) - the inventor of not only "daddy's boiler" and safety valve, but also centrifugal pump and, most importantly, the first steam engines with cylinder and piston. Papin even established the dependence of vapor pressure on temperature and showed how to obtain both vacuum and vacuum on its basis. high blood pressure. He was a student of Huygens, corresponded with Leibniz and other prominent scientists of his time, was a member of the English Royal Society and the Academy of Sciences in Naples. And here is such a person who is rightfully considered a prominent physicist and one of the founders of modern thermal power engineering (as the creator of steam engine), and works on a perpetual motion machine! Not only that, he proposes such a perpetual motion machine, the fallacy of the principle of which was completely obvious to contemporary science as well. He publishes this project in Philosophical Transactions (London, 1685).
Rice. 1. Model of a hydraulic perpetual motion machine by D. Papin
The idea of Papin's perpetual motion machine is very simple - it is essentially an inverted "upside down" Zonka's pipe (Fig. 1). Since the weight of water is greater in the wide part of the vessel, its force must exceed the force of the weight of the narrow column of water in the thin pipe C. Therefore, water will constantly drain from the end of the thin pipe into the wide vessel. It remains only to substitute the water wheel under the jet and the perpetual motion machine is ready!
It is obvious that in reality this will not work; the liquid surface in a thin tube will be set at the same level as in a thick one, as in any communicating vessels (as in the right part of Fig. 1.).
The fate of this idea of Papin was the same as that of other variants of hydraulic perpetual motion machines. The author never returned to it, having taken up a more useful business - a steam engine.
The story of the invention by D. Papin suggests a question that constantly arises when studying the history of perpetual motion machines: how to explain the amazing blindness and strange behavior of many very educated and, most importantly, talented people that arise every time, as soon as it comes to the invention of a perpetual motion machine?
We will return to this issue later. If we continue talking about Papin, then something else is incomprehensible. Not only does it not take into account the already known laws of hydraulics. After all, at that time he was in the position of "temporary curator of experiments" at the Royal Society of London. Papin, with his experimental skills, could easily test the idea of a perpetual motion machine he proposed (just as he tested his other proposals). It is easy to set up such an experiment in half an hour, without even having the capabilities of a “curator of experiments”. He didn't, and for some reason submitted the article to the magazine without checking anything. Paradox: an outstanding experimental scientist and theorist publishes a project that contradicts an already established theory and has not been verified experimentally!
In the future, many more hydraulic perpetual motion machines were proposed with other methods of raising water, in particular capillary and wick (which, in fact, are the same thing) [. They proposed to lift liquid (water or oil) from the lower vessel to the upper one through a wetted capillary or wick. Indeed, it is possible to raise the liquid to a certain height in this way, but the same surface tension forces that caused the rise will not allow the liquid to drain from the wick (or capillary) into the upper vessel.
What happens on the video?
When liquid is poured into the funnel, then, according to the law of communicating vessels, the levels should be the same, and it flows into the tube with a large delay, therefore, under the wooden stand there is also a vessel from which water is pumped, since it will stop in the middle and will not flow. This the hydraulic perpetuum mobile of the Middle Ages, which contains an error, as if the greater weight of the funnel will displace water from the tube, but this is not so. Any tube diameter and any shape does not matter, the levels just level out
