Orbo EXPOSED
July 13th, 2007
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The Free Energy/Perpetual Motion Machine that wasn’t.
(I love the shirt. It’s so poetically ironic)
The plot is thinning in the perpetual boondoggle which was Orbo, the thermodynamics-defying energy machine from Steorn which was going to destroy the oil companies, rewrite the laws of physics and lead to a world of limitless energy… only not.
Apparently, enough people on the “Development forum” had put two and two together (and gotten four, as opposed to Steron, which got seventeen), and with the device’s public debut, a few people got a good look at the device. The results of the reverse-engineering of Obro have been posted on this website.
Here’s a diagram of the basics, which was posted on the website:
It seems that Orbo is, in fact, a simple permanent magnet motor, which has been a fixture of perpetual-motion craziness … research for a long long time. The basic idea is that if you put magnets in a pattern such that their poles all face in one general direction, to create a circular magnetic field, then place more magnets on a rotator, such that their poles oppose those of the stationary magnets, they will be repelled and pushed into motion and will continue to move since the magnetic field continues in a circle. This little animation shows the basic idea:
Unfortionately, there are some problems with this idea which make it unworkable and allow the laws of physics to stand. If you were to push the wheel, it will indeed turn for some period of time, but only as much as the energy put in allows. Eventually it will start to wobble and then stop when it finds a point of equilibrium. This is somewhat similar to the way that a “magnetic pendulum” desktoy will wobble and move for a while before it settles on a point where the magnetic fields and gravity are in equilibrium.It is possible, however, with a very balanced design and well designed bearings and mechanics to create a magnetic force motor which does not stop, due to reaching a point of equilibrium, but this too has a problem. When the magnets are opposed, their fields are also opposing eachother, and within a relatively short period of time, they will begin to degauss eachother. The word “permanent” is a bit deceptive, because, in this case, the energy which is apparently being generated originated when the magnets were first polarized. Once they have lost their magnetic properties, they would need to be repolarized, by a strong magnetic field.
The idea that opposition (or in some cases attraction) to cause motion seems intuitive, if a circular field could be setup, but there are problems with this..
It’s possible that a device with very strong rare-earth magnets and a low friction bearing, if properly constructed, could continue in motion for a while, possibly hours, giving the impression that it is in perpetual motion. However, the actual energy stored by magnetic potential is relatively small, and it takes a lot to repolarize a dead magnet. So for energy storage, this device also turns out to be just about useless.
Most “free-energy” developers will simply find their machine slow down, jiggle and then stop. This very frustrating experience may, if taken far enough, lead to complicated gearing, ratchets, magnetic shields and such. Ultimately, the best that can be hopped for is to achieve motion at the expense of the magnetic field. This idea is far from new, and many have fallen for it before..
Guess maybe the guys at Steorn had their celebratory Guinness a bit early…
This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 9:59 am and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Enviornment, Events, Humor, Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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July 14th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I guess the guy that wrote this article skipped his physics classes at school.
As I understand it to demagnetise a magnet you need to either heat it to its currie point or reverse the polarity to the point where the new field enters the magnetic domains and switches them.
Not a likely possibility with this setup.
Rob
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July 14th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
No that’s not entirely true. If you move a magnet in opposition to it’s field you can do so as well. A “Degausing coil” which is used on older television sets and such actually is somewhat similar. It basically has an alternating magnetic field which will rearrange the domains within the magnet.
Stroking ferous material with a magnet or simply moving it within the magnetic field can cause it to become polarized. (just try it with a steel nail and a bar magnet). Doing so against the magnetic field will have the opposite effect.
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July 15th, 2007 at 2:19 am
@DrBuzz0,
Thank you for your reply.
Quote:
“Stroking ferous material with a magnet or simply moving it within the magnetic field can cause it to become polarized. (just try it with a steel nail and a bar magnet). Doing so against the magnetic field will have the opposite effect.”
I agree, but using a nail would not be the same thing.
The intrinsic coercive force of a nail or the phosphor coating in a television will be very different to a neodymium magnet.
I think the only real way to solve this puzzle is to setup an experiment using some neodymium magnets rotated in a repulsive field arrangement over a 24 hour period and measure the gauss level at the surface of the magnets before and after.
I am not saying the magnets will not de-magnetise, just that it will take a lot longer than a day for the given proximity of the faces in the Orbo device and the RPMs. It may take years.
The other thing is that to re-magnetise the magnets needs a very powerful field coil pulsed with DC for say 0.1 seconds, so the energy required to remagnetise the magnet may not be that great. The manufacturers may be able to shed some light on how much power is used in the process.
Hopefully in a couple of weeks the next demonstration by Steorn should be able to clear this all up.
Regards
Rob
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July 15th, 2007 at 8:03 am
I should probably add that as far as I know orbo does not demagnetize the magnets. More likely, it simply will free spin for a while and then settle into an area where the fields cancel out. However, there have been (in the past) attempts at free-energy derived from magnets which has been able to overcome the “equilibrium” problem, sometimes with some rather complicated mechanics. In any case, if they do manage to do so, the motion of the magnetic fields against each other will weaken the magnets.
Conclusion: You can’t win. The energy must come from somewhere. Even if you could keep it unbalanced it won’t be able to move perpetually.
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July 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
In quantum mechanics there still isn’t a proper understanding of the source charge that sustains the dipole of a magnet, so really if it did work it would be no different to creating a water wheel, except your energy source would be the vacuum which sustains the dipole moment in the magnet once it’s created.
Rare earth Neodynium Iron Boron magnets don’t noticeably demagnetise over short periods of time from interacting with each other, even vigorously, they are a whole different kettle of fish compared to standard ferrite magnets. Steorn will most likely be using rare earth.
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July 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 am
The wheel won’t turn by itself simply because there’s no net force on it – depleting magnets are irrelevant.
You’re imagining that the magnets here are something like hoses shooting water at a water wheel. But magnets don’t work like that.
Potential energy in a magnetic field is like potential energy in a spring. Only if you store up potential by doing work, can you get it back.
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July 22nd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Magnetic fields are STATIC, Energy in Energy out. Steorn claiming when you TRAVEL around Magnets for some strange reason of an EXCESS of energy occurs.
So 1 compress state released by some configuration to lesser state of compression.
Trick is configuration?? Does a possible static configuration exist, of 2 type matter occur the release energy? Yes it happend all the time. Now just needs to be done with MAGNETIC matterials so that large amount energy over a long period of time.
Movement or LOAD is sign of a release. What types of matter would degrade, release via MAGNETIC or Energy discharge. Some types of matter degrade via RADATION. Hmmm some via HEAT / Radation…. So your locking at part OF ORBO. Something small and simple that just created a funnel for rare combination of matter to go from 1 compress state to another.
Spinning Bismuth with feed back coil, semi stature iron ring with under copper linear coil. With static magnet forced to be come degraded over time. Something like that I am guessing.
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July 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 am
You’d think the folks at Steorn would have done more research…
I am wondering, though, if someone could explain to me how overheating from intense lighting would prevent this thing from working, if it was “powered” by magnets, like that.
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July 29th, 2007 at 8:34 am
I think the heat issue is more for the orbo’s plexiglass housing getting soft and deteriating operational peramiters and tolerences.
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August 10th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
That is not Steorns device, do more digging!
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October 28th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Such a lame joke.
Chronos_: rubbish. That war is hell.
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November 11th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Yatzee.
I mean if you are farmer, do you want to spray pesticide in the river or on your field. NotACow handes Shadow42 some segmentation glue.
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