# What trickery is used in this video? (Alleged perpetual motion machine.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693 "2016-01-10T16:29:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/21 "2016-01-11T10:33:54Z")
As to the OP’s question. A few things occur to me. The wheel is oddly close to the base. This would suggest some shenanigans. The gap between wheel and base might have been designed for best efficiency of utilising an air jet. However the ball bearing is heavy, and accelerating both it and the wheel will take energy. A big ball bearing like that close to a magnet capable of holding it so well is going to be dissipating a noticeable amount of energy due to eddy currents. It makes me feel that the ball is the motor. The box under the horseshoe magnet could contain a typical DC motor controller with a Hall Effect sensor plus an electromagnet. Then magnetise the ball. Energise the controller and the ball will start to rotate. Some care will be needed to ensure it always rotates the correct direction. Some very careful analysis of the ball’s behaviour near the magnet might indicate whether it is indeed magnetised. OTOH, you can build a motor without magnetising the ball, it is however a bit harder to do. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/22 "2016-01-11T12:48:46Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > Just a quick aside. I’m not good at this type of thing as I don’t understand a lot of science. You say the that you can get ‘finite’ work from magnets but it will destroy them. How could a magnet be destroyed? I’ve had magnets as a kid and they never went dead, they would always work even after being stuck together for several years. What is the explanation, in layman’s terms, please. All the magnets I had as a kid demonstrated the problem quite well: the more you use them, the weaker they get. Not as in sticking them together, but sticking and unsticking them. Most good strong refrigerator magnets will last for hundreds if not thousands of cycles, but the cheap magnets they use for toys? After a few hundred times of sticking them to something metal, they are noticeably less attracted. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/23 "2016-01-11T12:53:03Z")
The hall effect switch is easy to incorporate, there are a number of novelty devices such as a spinning top that use a small electromagnetic powered by a battery to keep something moving until the battery wears out. Only triggered periodically the battery can seem to last for a long time. It’s difficult to judge the speed of the wheel, but it doesn’t seem to correspond to the movement of the ball. Vaughn alludes to a magnetized ball, and that’s a possibility, the rolling could be turning that magnetic ball to commutate the field. I’ve seen a simple generator design based on a magnetized ball like that. But I’m still not seeing the balls movement being sufficient to turn the wheel that fast. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/24 "2016-01-11T16:29:12Z")
He’s adding work by moving the magnet. I don’t know that any other explanation is needed. If he wanted to show off a perpetual motion machine, he’d bolt the magnet in place and just let the thing keep turning. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/25 "2016-01-11T17:50:18Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > Sure, Magic Wheels (ie, devices using magnets to extend the momentum of a light wheel) have existed since the middle ages. Could you provide a link? Google searches are returning everything except what you are describing. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/26 "2016-01-11T18:14:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He’s adding work by moving the magnet. I don’t know that any other explanation is needed. If he wanted to show off a perpetual motion machine, he’d bolt the magnet in place and just let the thing keep turning. This was my initial thought too. Also, if the goal was to trick the viewers why not turn off the sound altogether? ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/27 "2016-01-11T18:23:56Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Could you provide a link? Google searches are returning everything except what you are describing. Yes, in my google the six first links are also about some sort of weird skateboard/monocycle device. But the seventh is the wiki link. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/28 "2016-01-11T18:32:38Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > Sure, Magic Wheels (ie, devices using magnets to extend the momentum of a light wheel) have existed since the middle ages. Here’s the [Magic Wheel wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_wheel). These devices don’t ‘use up’ the magnet. I imagine all of them will turn for a longer time if there’s no magnets involved at all. I’m skeptical about this one because it gets up to a pretty good speed just by moving the magnet close to the wheel. Usually those things get started with a good push and only de-accelerate. This one seems to accelerate. Perhaps the acceleration comes as he moves the magnet into the sweet spot and that’s all there is. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/29 "2016-01-11T18:45:13Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Here’s the [Magic Wheel wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_wheel). These devices don’t ‘use up’ the magnet. I imagine all of them will turn for a longer time if there’s no magnets involved at all. > > I’m skeptical about this one because it gets up to a pretty good speed just by moving the magnet close to the wheel. Usually those things get started with a good push and only de-accelerate. This one seems to accelerate. Perhaps the acceleration comes as he moves the magnet into the sweet spot and that’s all there is. I guess that technically most movement or friction “uses up” the magnet, in the sense that the molecules will stop being aligned faster than if you kept the magnet still. There’s more possibilities than just mere trickery. Maybe the wheel is not regular metal, and I’ve seen videos with superlight materials that make this look like nothing. Maybe the “trick” resides in a perfectly balanced axle that minimizes friction. r/science is filled with stuff like this. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/30 "2016-01-11T18:51:38Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > I guess that technically most movement or friction “uses up” the magnet, in the sense that the molecules will stop being aligned faster than if you kept the magnet still. I think Mangetout was wondering about the concept of a wheel that keeps spinning by ‘depleting’ the magnets as it works. As I said before, these things should work just as well if you give them an initial spin with your hand and there are no magnets involved. There’s no way for fixed magnets to add any net energy into the system. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/31 "2016-01-11T18:59:18Z")
Without further video with different angles or a wider shot, I’d guess what some of you have suggested: a jet of air from just off-screen. I can’t find it right now, but I’ve seen a similar video of a perpetual motion machine that looked similar to this one, but at the end the camera pulls back to show how they were faking it with a jet of air. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693/32 "2016-01-12T07:08:39Z")
I decided to google it for a bit and it IS a fake. It comes from the [veproject](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN8JJf0CMRkZ6ozapl6nMCw) Youtube channel, a channel devoted to making mock representations of old devices that could theoretically be perpetual motion machines, but of course using pretty much motors. Somewhat interesting channel, nonetheless. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-trickery-is-used-in-this-video-alleged-perpetual-motion-machine/742693.md?page=1)