Why Magnets Can’t Be Used to Create Energy – Explained

energymagnetmagnetics

Won't it rotate continuously?

Why can't this happen? Energy cannot be created, right?

Then will the magnets degrade over time and stop being magnets?

But they don't have their own energy also.

Then how?

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Best Answer

It won't rotate forever. If you build one, you will notice that it takes force to make the moving magnets pass the fixed magnets.

You have to push the moving N towards the fixed N - like poles push each other away.

You have to push the moving N away from the fixed S as the moving magnet passes the fixed one.

If you try it, you will see the moving magnets slow as they get closer to the fixed magnets. You will also see the moving magnets slow as they go away from the fixed magnets.

To make it worse, the material of the magnets is itself magnetic. The material of all magnets is attracted to the field of other magnets - regardless of the pole. You can stick a weak magnet N pole to the N pole of a strong magnet because the attraction of the strong magnet to the material of the weak magnet is stronger than the repulsion between the N pole of the weak magnet and the N pole of the strong magnet.

Your "perpetual motion" machine will stop after just a few rotations with the moving magnets "stuck" near the fixed magnets.


This is not a new idea - you are not the first person to have this idea or fall into this trap.

The idea is common enough that it has its own wikipedia page.

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