It is the convention to dismiss the very idea of gravity as a source of energy but there is a reason why I say that gravity is ultimately what drives Bessler’s wheel. Whether it is, or is not an energy source, in the end, without it Bessler’s wheel could not function.
For hundreds of years water wheels have been used for purposes such grinding corn and later to drive the cotton industrial mills in northern England. These days hydroelectric turbines are operating within dams, to produce electricity - and the common factor with each is flowing water. Water flows downhill due to the effect of gravity.
Gravity acts continuously on matter that has mass. But for our purposes there has to be a mechanical interaction with gravity. Although gravity interactions in space are described as action-at-a-distance, I’m discussing earthly mechanical interactions which can also happen when a falling object affects the actions of another object.
When gravity moves a mass we say it does work. When it moves a waterwheel it does work by moving the water, which in turn moves the wheel, another object of mass.
If we wish to use gravity to turn Bessler’s wheel, we need to include at least two actions. The first action involves the weights which fall through the effect of gravity - no disputing the cause there. The second action is the turning of the wheel. When Bessler’s wheel began to turn it did so because it was out of balance because where the falling weights landed overbalanced it - no disputing the cause there either, gravity. This is, and has been, the ultimate prize of perpetual motion seekers for thousands of years. Gravity may or may not be providing the energy to turn the wheel, but it is enabling it to do so.
This looks like mere semantics and gives the impression that we are drawing energy from gravity, but we are told we can’t. We are taking advantage of the effect of gravity on objects of mass. This is no different to the way flowing water drives the waterwheel, except for one important difference, the flow of water is finite in that it can only flow for as long as there is water available further upstream.
With a Bessler’s wheel we need a succession of falling weights but we don’t have them. Therefore we must find a way to lift the fallen weights as quickly as possible so that they can fall again before their turn comes around. Fallen weight have to be lifted.
According to Wikipedia a conservative force can be identified by ’the property that the total work done in moving a particle between two points is independent of the path taken. Equally, if a particle travels in a closed loop, the total work done (the sum of the force acting along the path multiplied by the displacement) by a conservative force is zero’.
I have read that definition too many times to count and it has always seemed to me to be misleading. They mention one particle doing a loop, and several particles doing loops, all impossible if the work done equals zero, so no closed loop is possible. But it has always seemed obvious to me that if extra particles are added who do not need to make a loop, but whose sole purpose is to move the original particles away from their mind numbing loop so that they can actually complete a loop because work was done for them, then gravity has done some work on the extra particles resulting in the former particles performing loops.
This does not nullify the original definition of a conservative force, but it does leave the way open to using gravity as an energy source. At the end of the day, we are certain that Bessler’s wheel worked; he said that the weights were the actual perpetual motion; weights fall because gravity makes them; the wheel will turn when out of balance. Therefore I can only assume that the work in rotating the wheel is done by gravity.
If you wish to post a drawing on this blog, I have created a permanent page but you will have to email it to me so I can add it. The email information is there. Click on the ‘submitted Drawings’ link at the the top right side of the column on the right. If interest is scarce I’ll probably remove it eventually.
I have posted a drawing on behalf RAF, but I dont know whether all of it is present, pending confirmation that it is ok.
Link to my granddaughter’s
gofundme site https://www.helpamy.co.uk/
See the latest update. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-amy-to-walk-again
According to Wikipedia a conservative force can be identified by ’the property that the total work done in moving a particle between two points is independent of the path taken. Equally, if a particle travels in a closed loop, the total work done (the sum of the force acting along the path multiplied by the displacement) by a conservative force is zero’.
I have read that definition too many times to count and it has always seemed to me to be misleading. They mention one particle doing a loop, and several particles doing loops, all impossible if the work done equals zero, so no closed loop is possible. But it has always seemed obvious to me that if extra particles are added who do not need to make a loop, but whose sole purpose is to move the original particles away from their mind numbing loop so that they can actually complete a loop because work was done for them, then gravity has done some work on the extra particles resulting in the former particles performing loops.
This does not nullify the original definition of a conservative force, but it does leave the way open to using gravity as an energy source. At the end of the day, we are certain that Bessler’s wheel worked; he said that the weights were the actual perpetual motion; weights fall because gravity makes them; the wheel will turn when out of balance. Therefore I can only assume that the work in rotating the wheel is done by gravity.
If you wish to post a drawing on this blog, I have created a permanent page but you will have to email it to me so I can add it. The email information is there. Click on the ‘submitted Drawings’ link at the the top right side of the column on the right. If interest is scarce I’ll probably remove it eventually.
I have posted a drawing on behalf RAF, but I dont know whether all of it is present, pending confirmation that it is ok.
Link to my granddaughter’s
gofundme site https://www.helpamy.co.uk/
See the latest update. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-amy-to-walk-again
JC
