Irish company challenges scientists to test 'free energy' technology [Oh Yeah!]

PhysOrg.com ^ | 18 August 2006 | Staff

[PatrickHenry]

An Irish company threw down the gauntlet on Friday to the worldwide scientific community to test a technology it has developed that it claims produces free energy.

The company, Steorn (http://www.steorn.net), says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy -- a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics.

It claims the technology can be used to supply energy for virtually all devices, from mobile phones to cars.

Steorn issued its challenge through an advertisement in the Economist magazine this week quoting Ireland's Nobel prize-winning author George Bernard Shaw who said that "all great truths begin as blasphemies".

Sean McCarthy, Steorn's chief executive officer, said they had issued the challenge for 12 physicists to rigorously test the technology so it can be developed.

"What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy," McCarthy said.

"The energy isn't being converted from any other source such as the energy within the magnet. It's literally created. Once the technology operates it provides a constant stream of clean energy," he told Ireland's RTE radio.

McCarthy said Steorn had not set out to develop the technology, but "it actually fell out of another project we were working on".

One of the basic principles of physics is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change form.

McCarthy said a big obstacle to overcome was the disbelief that what they had developed was even possible.

"For the first six months that we looked at it we literally didn't believe it ourselves. Over the last three years it had been rigorously tested in our own laboratories, in independent laboratories and so on," he said.

"But we have been unable to get significant scientific interest in it. We have had scientists come in, test it and, off the record, they are quite happy to admit that it works.

"But for us to be able to commercialise this and put this into peoples' lives we need credible, academic validation in the public domain and hence the challenge," McCarthy said.

[Stultis]

Debunk the dang thing and move on.

LOL! As If.

It don't work that way. Free energy nuts, creationists, ufologists, homeopathists, crystal healers, etc, etc, etc, never ever take a debunking, however sound and thorough, as a reason to "move on".

On the contrary, it's only a publicity (and often a fund raising) opportunity, and a signal to embrace the role of victim.

Just watch. That's exactly how this will go down.

[citizenmike]

One magnet would sneak up behind the other and get close enough to get caught on the repulsion. It would push the blades around again.

I'm just a homeschooling mom and not an engineer. All I know is it worked and I gave the kids an A.

I would like to build this fan with my kids. Can you post some details? Or email me: mkaplan at kapcom.com. Thanks.

[dr huer]

The tennis ball comes over the net at you, and is slowing down. You hit it with your moving racket, which is heavier than the tennis ball and send the ball back over the net at speed greater than it had before you hit it. In the probe planet case the probe spends more time in the planets gravitational field inbound than outbound due to the initial relative motion of the planet, so more momentum is transferred by gravity to the probe.

[DoctorMichael]

.....are going to pay the direct costs for the validation......

Where do they say this? My reading of the article says, "....issued the challenge for 12 physicists....". I can't find where they will pay for anything.

They also claim that thay have a patent pending on the technology.

I have now read the article twice. Where do they claim to have a "patent pending"?

They also say, "....We have had scientists come in, test it and, off the record, they are quite happy to admit that it works....". Which "Scientists"? Who are they? Is this one of them............?

[DelphiUser]

ping for later

[Clioman]

Are you series!? This could be Hugh!!

[Kirkwood]

"Light waves are energy. Sound waves are energy. Heck, everything in our universe is energy vibrating at different speeds. Electrons are buzzing all over the place. There must be some way to tap it without blowing ourselves up. There has to be some way to manipulate it to our advantage. Somebody is bound to figure it out sooner or later."

Heck is right. We already tap into this existing energy alot. We can collect light from the sun and convert into electricty or use as stored heat. We can tap into rivers flowing by force of gravity and convert into mechanical motion or electricity. We can tap into geothermal sources of heat or tap into wind and convert into electricity. We can tap into heat produced by nuclear reactions and convert into electricity. The list goes on and on. We need more work being done on better battery storage technology so we can make better personal use of the energy that is out there.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

This is some serious Irish Bull.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

"slingshot" orbital speedups are gained by having the spacecraft fly by a planet or moon starting at exactly the right place that the planet gives up energy from its forward orbital motion to the spacecraft. What this means is that every time we use Jupiter to speed up a probe, the planet slows down slightly. if we sent a really, really large number of probes by Jupiter this way, we could get it to fall into the Sun."

"Hmmm... Actually, as an orbiting body is slowed, it gains in altitude, not the other way round. :-)"

Not quite. Slower moving bodies are further away, but they have more potential and more total energy. If you slow a planet by slingshot method, it actually reduces the orbital size and speeds up as it falls toward the sun. This is called "orbital decay" and it happens all the time.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments.

[Junior]

Cold fusion doesn't violate the laws of physics. This "free energy" device sounds like it does.

[WhiteGuy]

Ignore the fact that you have to shake the thing to make it work.

I keep telling my wife that..............

[Mark Felton]

From their patent application they state;

"The exposed magnetic field may be used to perform work (eg interact with other magnetic fields to move objects)

It sounds like these guys may be trying to sell this;

From the Museum of Unworkable Devices

The Classic Magnetic Shield Engine

A reader informs us that a device of this sort was given as an extra credit homework problem by an MIT professor back in 1985. Chris Cheng, a high school student from Sydney, Australia, sent us a simple version, from which this one evolved through a process of tinkering.

How it's supposed to work.

Magnetic shielding materials are available. They aren't perfect shields, but for the purposes of this motor they don't need to be perfect.

A freely rotatable armature in the center consists of a permanent magnet partly covered with a magnetic shield (solid black). The shield has openings at the right, near the poles. An outer ring has magnets in a radial array with their north poles inside, firmly fastened to a rigid frame. These magnets are long, so the south poles are at a considerably greater radius than the north poles. The magnetic field from a magnet pole decreases in strength with distance.

The shield apertures permit each armature pole to "see" only a couple of the magnets of the outer ring. Each armature pole is affected primarily by the north poles of the ring, those being nearest. Therefore, in the position shown in the picture, the N pole of the armature is repelled, experiencing a force to the left. The S pole of the armature is attracted, experiencing a force to the right. These two forces make a couple, which rotates the armature clockwise.

Classic simplicity! If you wanted to improve it, those outer magnets could be swung up or down so they were in a cylindrical array of magnets with their axes parallel. Then a similar armature could be placed in the plane of the S poles, operating on the same axle as the armature in the plane of the N poles. This should double the power output!

We caution the reader that this machine has details that could be subtle and difficult to analyze in detail. Gauss's and Stokes' laws in vector calculus form may be required for a full analysis. However, this machine has a simple and fundamental flaw that can be appreciated even at the introductory physics level. "

It doesnt work.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy," McCarthy said.

And the energy can be used to to move you around the magnetic field.

You know, you can get free energy by carrying an object 150 miles above the earth and dropping it also.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Kind of like the people who develop get rich quick schemes, then sell them.

[Boiler Plate]

Why did these "Scientists" only make "off the record" statements?

[Boiler Plate]

You are not one much for punctuation, are you?

[DoughtyOne]

Could it be there weren't any? Nah... LOL

[ToryHeartland]

Invest now!

But not the whole farm, because I can offer for sale Buckingham Palace and Big Ben to the first person to call me on 1-800-TAKEMYMONEY!

[RadioAstronomer]

I understand this stuff very well. Read my later post. I worked as an orbit analyst with NASA and still "do" orbit design work as required. I was trying to be funny, but obviously I fell flat on my face.

Sigh.