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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: JDN who wrote (155810)1/26/2006 1:35:31 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (2) of 793757
 
I always wondered why someone couldn't invent an engine that works off the principle that in magnets opposites attract and the same push away.

Electric motors depend on that idea but they use energy they don't produce it.

electronics.howstuffworks.com

An electric generator is sort of an electric motor in reverse. Instead of using electricity to cause the armature to move (and then extracting work from that motion), you use another source of energy to cause the armature to move and then you extract electricity.

state.hi.us

In other words we do use "the principle that in magnets opposites attract and the same push away" both in motors and in generators, but because the efficiency is always less than 100% instead of greater than 100% you need to put more energy in to either the motor or the generator than you can get out.

If you could have 100% efficiency for the whole system you would have a "2nd class perpetual motion machine" (one that will go forever with no input but where you can't extract work/energy without reducing the energy of the system. If you could have greater than 100% efficiency you could have a first class perpetual motion machine (one where you can extract energy without winding down the system). But the pesky laws of thermodynamics get in the way.

You can easily have a motor where no fuel is needed, but you need some source of energy. For non-fuel powered motors that source is usually electricity. (which may itself be generated from burning fuel but isn't always)

Tim
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