>> Anyone who believes in perpetual motion, no matter how convincing the sales pitch, is a complete fool.
>I don't know how that makes someone a fool, but whatever.
OK, they may just be very ignorant rather than merely foolish. However, once you start to discuss it with them and they insist on sticking to a "well, you just never know, it might be possible... we got to the moon, didn't we?" style of argument, they become foolish.
They may not understand the concept of the second law of thermodynamics. I do not call them foolish for this reason (despite it being required learning in most schools) but I do expect them to accept a rational, logical explanation (even if simplified).
Any machine exhibiting perpetual-motion behaviour is taking its energy from somewhere. As soon as you involve magnets, you're playing on the layman's ignorance of how permanent magnets work. The word permanent is a misnomer. A permanent magnet can indeed suspend an object against the force of gravity, but the magnet is losing energy in doing so. It will eventually lose its magnetism, requiring an energy input to again magnetise it.
>I don't know how that makes someone a fool, but whatever.
OK, they may just be very ignorant rather than merely foolish. However, once you start to discuss it with them and they insist on sticking to a "well, you just never know, it might be possible... we got to the moon, didn't we?" style of argument, they become foolish.
They may not understand the concept of the second law of thermodynamics. I do not call them foolish for this reason (despite it being required learning in most schools) but I do expect them to accept a rational, logical explanation (even if simplified).
Any machine exhibiting perpetual-motion behaviour is taking its energy from somewhere. As soon as you involve magnets, you're playing on the layman's ignorance of how permanent magnets work. The word permanent is a misnomer. A permanent magnet can indeed suspend an object against the force of gravity, but the magnet is losing energy in doing so. It will eventually lose its magnetism, requiring an energy input to again magnetise it.