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For Extra Credit: How It Is Supposed to Work

A magnet is any material or object that produces a magnetic field. Among the strongest magnets are those derived from rare-earth minerals. In the case of the Earth Engine, superstrong magnets paired with computer control and the good old flywheel allow IEC to claim it can “suspend entropy.”

Mr. Danzik says he became convinced he could extract energy from powerful magnets (mostly ordinary iron) that are clustered in a way that magnifies their effect. Such arrays are well known. For example, Tesla cars use electromagnetic motors with what are called “Halbach” arrays, which are about 30% stronger than typical neodymium magnets.
The magnets IEC uses are also highly one-sided, or “anisotropic,” which means their field is stronger on one face than the other—say, 85% North and 15% South.

In the R32, magnets located in three black towers interact with ones placed in the two one-ton, counter-rotating flywheels. As the flywheel rotates, small battery-powered motors move the tower magnets’ orientation at moments of highest drag. This allows the magnets to accelerate as they approach and not slow down as much when they pass.

The net force imparts angular momentum to the flywheels that can then be harvested, mechanically or electrically, IEC claims.

The biggest riddle involves the conservation of energy. Conventional physics holds that magnets have nearly zero inherent energy. Mr. Danzik believes that is because we calculate magnets’ strength by how much current they induce in a loop of wire. He argues that with the emergence of anisotropic, rare-earth magnets, we need a new set of equations to calculate a new physical quantity, which he describes as ‘’the resulting center shaft torque produced from angular momentum derived from the force of paired magnetic fields.”

If it all checks out, this new quantity would have to be measured in a new unit: the Danzik.

“The magnets IEC uses are also highly one-sided, or “anisotropic,” which means their field is stronger on one face than the other—say, 85% North and 15% South.”

We can be quite certain that the weaker side contains the same amount of overall magnetic flux as the stronger side, just dispersed over a wider area, leading to a lower “peak” on one side versus another.

There is, as yet, no “magnetic monopole” which is implied in describing a magnet that is “stronger on one side than the other”, but there are plenty of folks trying to find it.

I suspect they will be searching for some time to come.

This gentlemans perpetual motion machine will be placed on the same heap of junk as all of the previous ones.