Voodoo Science
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free energy machine
"Dennis Lee has broken a lot of laws, but he hasn't broken the laws of thermodynamics." --Robert Park
Free energy machines are to physics what homeopathy is to chemistry.
A free energy machine would be a machine that puts out more energy than is needed to run it. There are no free energy machines, despite what Joe Newman and Dennis Lee say.
A free energy machine would violate the first and second laws of thermodynamics.
The first law, also known as the law of the conservation of energy, asserts that the amount of energy is constant and can be neither created nor destroyed, though it can be changed from one form into another.
The second law, also known as the law of entropy, asserts that the amount of energy put into a system will always be more than the amount of energy that system puts out. Put another way, the entropy of an isolated system will tend to increase over time.
Even though free energy machines and perpetual motion machines do not exist, they can be patented both in the United States and in Canada. Neither country requires a working model of a machine as a condition for obtaining a patent. Thus, there is no requirement that the machine actually work.
See also Hutchison hoax, perpetual motion machine and my review of Dennis Lee's Better World Technologies and United Community Services of America.
further reading
books and articles
Park, Robert L. Voodoo Science: the Road from Foolishness to Fraud (Oxford University Press, 2000).
Van Ness, H. C. Understanding Thermodynamics. (1983). Dover Publications.
websites
PhACT-FAQ on Heat Based Free Energy Prepared by Tom Napier
Better World Technologies and United Community Services of America (Dennis Lee)
Entropy Systems (Alex Chiu)
Eric Krieg's Page examining the amazing claims of Dennis Lee and Better World Technology
Eric's History of Perpetual Motion and Free Energy Machines
More Free Energy and Hot Air by Milton Rothman
Free energy by John Blanton
Crackpot inventions by James Randi
"Free energy? It doesn't measure up" by Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, November 10 2007
HAFC or PICC High Mileage Is the Dutchman Enterprise system a scam HAFC PICC Dutchman Enterprises - scams? by Eric Kreig
Bad Science blogs
http://www.badscience.net/2007/07/hilarious-steorn-post-mortem-video/
http://www.badscience.net/2007/11/free-energy/
news stories
New Irish 'energy for nothing' gizmo fails jury vetting (Three years ago, Steorn, a company based in Dublin, Ireland, claimed it had developed a gizmo it calls Orbo that produces more energy than it uses. A year passed without any confirming evidence, so Steorn set up a panel of 22 independent scientists and engineers from Europe and North America chaired by Ian MacDonald, emeritus professor of electrical engineering at the University of Alberta. That must have satisfied enough investors to keep Steorn going, because it took two years before the panel quit. Although the international jury of scientists has concluded the free energy gizmo doesn't work, Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy promised it could deliver non-polluting, virtually cost-free power and will plod on. He plans a commercial launch toward the end of this year. Stop laughing.)
Last
updated 06/24/09
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Charles Fort