Free Energy......Again????

I know I know, these claims are a dime a dozen, but here's yet another
news.yahoo.com...

DUBLIN (AFP) - An Irish company has thrown down the gauntlet to the worldwide scientific community to test a technology it has developed that it claims produces free energy.
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The company, Steorn, says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy -- a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics.

It claims the technology can be used to supply energy for virtually all devices, from mobile phones to cars.

Maybe this time it won't be burried, after all, it made it to yahoo news.

It deserves to get burried, at least in my humble (or, in this case, my not-so-humble) opinion. Sorry, Rasobasi420, and this isn't personal (since it seems you're hoping this is true), but this whole topic is a pet peeve of mine.

[rant]
Every so-called "free energy" device I have ever seen, read up on, or heard about made outrageous claims based on "the interaction of magnetic fields" or "taking advantage of quantum fluctuations" or some such nonsense. This so-called "device" isn't just "a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics" as the article claims. It breaks the First Rule of Thermodynamics, which states that:

The increase in the energy of a closed system is equal to the amount of energy added to the system by heating, minus the amount lost in the form of work done by the system on its surroundings.

Or, in laymans terms, you can't get more energy out of something than you put into it. The laws of thermodynamics are called laws for a reason - there is no, repeat NO scientifically accepted evidence that they are breakable, bendable, or do not hold in special cases of interacting magnetic fields. It probably IS possible to take advantage of a planet's magnetic field in a way that would generate electricity, but that would probably have the net effect of slowing down the planet's molten core (in accordance with the 1st Law of Thermodynamics). Unfortunately, if this planet was Earth, if there was enough magnetic energy to power so much as a toaster winding its way around the planet, all our brains would probably be fried.

If this company wants to be taken seriously they need to give a better explaination for how their machine works than "the interaction of magnetic fields" and they need to cite reputable scientific sources - such as having an article published in a peer-reviewed journal by one of these unnamed "scientists" they claim have investigated this device.

The bottom line is that if something is too good to be true, it probably isn't true.
[/rant]

This will probably get locked down, there are a few other topics on this already, but here's my 2 cents. It is possible to find another source of clean energy without breaking the rules of thermodynamics. A caveman can start a fire, but can he explain the chemical reactions going on to maintain the fire's reaction? What about the physics of flint and steel? So, just because we don't know where the energy is coming from, doesn't mean it's 'free' energy in the perpetual motion sense.

That said, it's a scam. That, or some twisted viral for Halo 3, as some have mentioned.

Originally posted by PhloydPhan
Sorry, Rasobasi420, and this isn't personal (since it seems you're hoping this is true), but this whole topic is a pet peeve of mine.

Fair enough. I haven't seen much come of the "free energy" thing either. When I saw them say...

"What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy,"

I thought the same thing. There isn't anything more than that, hence, no reason to believe it.

I also think that it's possible for energy to be harnessed in a much more efficient way than is currently being used. If we dismiss every article that we find based solely on it being contrary to popular belief, then we miss out on the Galileos and the Einsteins of the world.

Of course not saying that these guys are Einstein or Galileo just yet, but I'm curious to see if something comes of this. As should anyone who sees something like this, so I believe anyway.

[edit on 21-8-2006 by Rasobasi420]