Tech: Perpetual motion? Probably not.

[dracodraconis]

A machine that generates perpetual energy, but not, according to Thane Heins, the Ottawa-based inventor, a perpetual motion machine. He refuses to use the term because there are negative associations attached to it. But this inventor believes he has designed a device that draws energy from both braking an acceleration, resulting in very little energy loss. At least that is the claim, and Dr. Riadh Habash of the University of Ottawa was unable to explain what is, in fact happening. As a result, the inventor was asked to demonstrate his device to Dr. Markus Zahn of MIT, who was impressed the the potential of the device, but unable to figure out what is, in fact, happening to generate the observed effect. While the Toronto Star article focused (understandably) on the inventor, PhysOrg focused on the technology. If you look at the picture of his experimental setup, the disks on the wheel are magnets and the device behind it is an induction motor. The motor was overcharged which results in a back-EMF in a wire coil (I assume the red object to the left of the wheel) which in turn generates a large electromagnetic field. The magnets pass though the field resulting in, one would expect, a retarding force as the magnets push though the field, eventually slowing the motor down. What has been observed to occur is that the field in the coil induces the flywheel to spin faster, increasing the back-EMF which in turn increases the field strength. To the average observer it might appear that energy is being generated for nothing, but what it may, in fact, be doing is increasing the overall motor efficiency by making better use of the electromotive forces. And it is this increase in motor efficiency that has people at UofO and MIT interested.