Perpetual Motion!
 

I think I've unintentionally discovered a perpetual motion "machine". I was working on my lawn mower and set a screwdriver and rag down on top of my outside A/C unit. A little while later, I noticed that the screwdriver was continually turning all by itself. I thought "Hmmm, that's neat" and forgot about it. Well, a few hours later and it is still turning! I figure I'll attach a small generator and get some free power. : )

Video

Seriously, I'm sure the vibration from the A/C unit has something to do with it, but thought it was kinda neat that it just happened to be postioned perfectly to do this. A little silly, yeah...

thats pretty cool.....thanks for the vid

Did you bring that screwdriver with you on the mayflower? All kidding aside that is an old screwdriver. I only noticed that cause it looks just like one of my dad's that his dad gave him!!!

lol, I don't even remember where I got that, but I've had it since before I was 16 (and I'm 34 now). It's survived typical screwdriver uses...you know; crowbar, hammer, knife, and rarely even to loosen/tighten screws. : )

I just thought it was really weird that I just threw it on there and it started doing that. I just came back from a 30 mile bikeride (pedalbike) and it was still going strong. I suspect it will last only as long as the A/C is on though...

Try to find the frequency that the a/c was vibrating at and then try to replicate it and see if it does that to other objects in a controlled environment.

At a guess, I would say 60Hz. ; )

How much resistance to stopping does it have?

its pretty cool but could never be perpetual motion. it only remains spinning like an electric motor due to the induced current from the power transformer.

perpetual motion is the concept of putting in a finite amount of energy, with an infinite output. this is possible if friction was equal to zero, but that could only occur if the spinning object was suspended in a complete vacuum in zero gravity. hence you would need to be in space, 100's of light years away from any planetary bodies to get zero gravity and a vacuum at the same time. i don't think any one will ever get perpetual motion since zero friction is impossible.

He's just kidding about the pm thing... ; )

yeah i know brianG was kidding, from the posts i had read of his he is too bright for that, but i thought i would post the above and see what reaction i would get : )
some plp where asking what seemed like serious questions about experimenting with it though....

Actually, I don't think the motion is from induced voltage, but rather than the vibration from the unit.

It's been a little on the warm side here the last few days so the A/C unit is still on. And guess what, the screwdriver is still turning away even this morning.

i would have expected it to have rattled off by now it that case.
best way to tell if its the vibrations is if you replace it with something non-metalic, similar shape and weight...that would be worth a try.

The screwdriver is simply a metal rod. Any induced voltage would be VERY VERY small (in the nano volts), and screwdriver "coil" is oriented the wrong way for an induced voltage to spin it. Also, the A/C case is sheet metal, so that is going to block any magnetic fields from the internal motors.

I don't think I could even try to duplicate it with anything else since this was very random/arbitrary and just happened to do this.

Yeah, I have seen stuff like this happen to me lot's too Brian... something about the vibration, just don't know how?

Biddy, you are forgetting 'Zeropoint Energy'.... the amount of energy in empty space (vacuum), which is the entire universe since an atom is made up of almost nothing as well.... anyways, the amount of energy in one cubic cm is 1x10^93 grams of mass energy (e=mc2 energy).......that's big, that's big.

Many labs around the world are reporting phenomena where getting weird readings/input/ouput, and other strange unexplainable things happening.

Is there any reason that this seemingly infinite supply of seething energy cannot be tapped and used? Indeed ask yourself this question, 'what created this universe, energy, consciousness, or both? Energy and consciousness are what this universe is made of, with the grand illusion of seeming solid and materialistic.

If you want to see a really great 'documentary', go and get yourself a copy of 'What the BLEEP, down the rabbit hole.' You will be thoroughly enlightened.

wow, i had never heard of zero point energy before, just read about it on wikipedia.
it is after all only a theory, but it helps to quantify how electromagnetic fields travel through space. sound waves require the oscillation of particles to propagate, but it seems that electromagnetic waves require some sort of "virtual" vacuum matter to also travel from one place to another. crazy.