Since this is a post discussing scientific and technical matters, I think it behooves me to begin this by stating that I have no education, either formal or informal, in the subjects discussed below. Because of this, I will not be going into significant detail about them; rather, I will merely be applying simple logic and common sense to some very basic, nontechnical scientific concepts in the hopes of enlightening the reader about something that has lately caught my interest.
To begin, I'd like to summarize one of the most fundamental laws in physics, which will be the main focus of this post. This as as follows:
The First Law of Thermodynamics: The total energy of an isolated system remains the same forever. Consequently, because reality as a whole - encompassing all planets, universes, and dimensions within it - is by definition an isolated system, energy cannot be created, nor can it be destroyed; it can only be converted into other forms of energy.
This definition should be easily comprehended by the intelligent reader with the most rudimentary knowledge of physics. The point of mentioning it here is so that I can delve into a very controversial subject among Internet conspiracy theorists and crackpots: the idea of a perpetual motion machine of the first kind (perpetual motion machines of the second kind won't be discussed here, but most of the same ideas apply to them). Simply stated, a perpetual motion machine of the first kind (hereafter referred to as PMM) is a device that accepts an input of x amount of energy, and outputs y amount of energy, where y is a quantity greater than x, without drawing the difference between the two quantities from another source. Such a machine would be creating energy, and thereby violating the First Law of Thermodynamics.
The statement that a PMM cannot exist in reality is universally accepted among educated physicists. Nevertheless, many crackpots still argue about it; one common debating tactic is to point out that the "laws" of physics are merely theories of an elevated status, and, since physics - unlike mathematics or logic - is an empirical science, there can be no indisputable "law" of physics. The implied conclusion is that a PMM can exist in reality, even though it would be violating the First Law of Thermodynamics. Such an implication is doing a great disservice to the First Law of Thermodynamics, as this law serves as the underpinning of a vast amount of mathematical physics that has proven right time and time again, not to mention something effectively self-evident (though such discussions enter into the realm of philosophy, as opposed to science, and are thus quite obviously beyond the scope of this essay). While the First Law of Thermodynamics is not necessarily true, as nothing established by inductive reasoning can be definitely shown to be true, it is so well-established and its universal validity so thoroughly demonstrated that questioning its validity without a very convincing argument - and I mean a very convincing argument - leads to something that can be dismissed out of hand.
To illustrate this, suppose that I constructed a PMM that had its operations scrutinized by the greatest physicists and engineers in the world. None of these people could figure out where it was getting the additional energy in its output from. Would it then be valid to state that the First Law of Thermodynamics is not universally true? The answer is a resounding no! The reason for this is that the First Law of Thermodynamics is so well-established that it is actually more sensible to state that the additional energy is being converted or gathered by a process unknown to and inscrutable by modern physics.
In summary: Even the construction of a device that serves as an apparent counterexample to the First Law of Thermodynamics would not be sufficient to dismiss the Law altogether. With this in mind, the sheer amount of purported PMMs can be attributed to people and groups with various intentions, ranging from the merely misguided to the completely ignorant to the deliberate frauds. Unless we have reason to believe that the First Law of Thermodynamics is untrue by demonstrating that it is simply and unquestionably wrong, the realm of the PMM will forever be confined to that of the crackpot and the used-car salesman.
Thanks for reading. |
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