Steorn "free energy" device

placeboplacebo
Posted:
in AppleOutsider edited January 2014
Saw this in the page of an Economist a few weeks ago but didn't bother to go to the website or research it at all until now.



http://www.steorn.com/



I bet they're gonna find out that somebody forgot a zero in some hundred-digit-long calculation.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Possibly. What true "free" energy requires is an exotic material (or technology) that has an extremely broad absorption spectrum and an extremely narrow emission spectrum. This is the model behind the hypothesized, yet finnicky, cold fusion. I'm pretty sure that they call this "Dilithium" in Star Trek, but in all honesty I'm not super familiar with the science of Star Trek.



    We'll see what this "Steorn" yields, but it's quite possible that they're onto something, even if it's misunderstood and can't be realized easily with our current knowledge of Quantum Physics or our current level of manufacturing capabilities.



    You may remember that a couple of years ago a Japanese guy made a fan motor that had "better than 100% efficiency." It turned out that he was just lucky and was getting some assistance from ambient electromagnetic sources. It's more than likely that this is the same deal.
  • Reply 2 of 27
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Seems to me if I had stumbled across the most significant advance in technology since the discovery of fire I would have something a little more focused and informative going on than a content free web page with feel good clip art and a contest in the Economist to find a "jury" to judge said technology's worthiness.



    Just sayin'.
  • Reply 3 of 27
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Magnets can be demagnitized, right? Is it possible this is somehow draining the magnets into kinetic energy?
  • Reply 4 of 27
    mydomydo Posts: 1,888member
    Free energy requires an act of god or a stolen credit card.
  • Reply 5 of 27
    hardeeharharhardeeharhar Posts: 4,841member
    Bullshit.
  • Reply 6 of 27
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    the wikipedia entry is pretty interesting. Steorn's CEO, Sean McCarthy, stated in a radio interview, that the energy isn't converted from another source, such as the magnet's field. "It's literally created," he says. and that would literally violates the law of conserving energy (ie, the total energy of an isolated system remains constant). I assume the CEO is merely ignorant of the science and misstated energy's creation.



    But, the most compelling evidence that this is complete and total shite, is Steorn's about page. Steorn, as a company, combats counterfeiting. How does a anti-counterfeiting operation grab genius-level physicists to work on perpetual motion machines?
  • Reply 7 of 27
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    From the site:



    Quote:

    In 2003 Steorn undertook a project to develop more efficient micro generators. Early into this project the company developed certain generator configurations that appeared to be over 100% efficient. Further investigation and development has led to the company?s current technology, a technology that produces free energy. The technology is patent pending.



    The implication here being that they were developing "more efficient micro generators" for reasons pertaining to their business and just sort of stumbled on a physics violating configuration.





    Quote:

    The technology has a coefficient of performance greater than 100%.



    The operation of the technology (i.e. the creation of energy) is not derived from the degradation of its component parts.



    There is no identifiable environmental source of the energy (as might be witnessed by a cooling of ambient air temperature).



    I love that "no identifiable environmental source", leaving open the possibility of trans-dimensional pixies.



    I think this is obviously a hoax, what I don't get is why. If it is to create publicity for their core business it doesn't seem like a very good idea-- "We're the wankers that jerked you around! And you fell for it, so we must be good!"
  • Reply 8 of 27
    marcukmarcuk Posts: 4,442member
    come on you guys, its clearly utilising Element 115, ununpentium!
  • Reply 9 of 27
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    How is this better than the MEG power source?
  • Reply 10 of 27
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    I believe them (in their claims as well as in their humbleness about whether it works or not). It's far too expensive for a hoax (they ran two or three ads in The Economist, which add up to over £150,000.
  • Reply 11 of 27
    hardeeharharhardeeharhar Posts: 4,841member
    You are a dupe Plac.
  • Reply 12 of 27
    apple2macapple2mac Posts: 20member
    I heard that the Steorn device runs on Copland, thus its high efficiency..
  • Reply 13 of 27
    hardeeharharhardeeharhar Posts: 4,841member
    I heard it even supports open doc...
  • Reply 14 of 27
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hardeeharhar


    You are a dupe Plac.



    Perhaps you're a little on the slow side. I said I believe that they have a technology which is a bit of a riddle and they want to see it proven/disproven, while I don't believe passionately that it's going to turn out to be some miracle breakthrough; I'm pretty skeptical myself.
  • Reply 15 of 27
    apple2macapple2mac Posts: 20member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hardeeharhar


    I heard it even supports open doc...



    Sweet, how I missed CyberDog....
  • Reply 16 of 27
    sammi josammi jo Posts: 4,634member
    Lets give these guys a chance! If it's a bunch of bunk, then careful, sound science will tell us such. It is as much bad science to debunk an unconventional claim without examination, as it is to make one in the first place. Just because we think we know it all doesn't mean that we do!



    Whatever is going on here (if anything), one thing we can be sure of is that this has nothing whatsoever to do with "perpetual motion", and I am sure the people involved are not making irresponsible and frankly stupid claims along those lines.



    The whole area (pseudoscience?) of "free energy" (for want of more appropriate terminology) is populated with charlatans and hoaxers. The link below is interesting though... especially since this Moray came up with solid state devices long before Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen introduced the transistor shortly after WW2.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Henry_Moray



    Can anyone pour cold water on this one?
  • Reply 17 of 27
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Outsider


    How is this better than the MEG power source?



    There's some truth to that MEG stuff. A few years ago one of my friends in college tore apart a CRT computer monitor, salvaged the high voltage switching source, and used it to build the gravity engine as discussed on that site. It worked, but it didn't break any laws of physics.
  • Reply 18 of 27
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    The real evidence that that's a hoax is that the oil companies would have had the administration shut them down a long time ago.
  • Reply 19 of 27
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel


    There's some truth to that MEG stuff. A few years ago one of my friends in college tore apart a CRT computer monitor, salvaged the high voltage switching source, and used it to build the gravity engine as discussed on that site. It worked, but it didn't break any laws of physics.



    You know, I've seen other sites claim they've replicated the things they prove on that MEG site too but could never discern if they were genuine or not.
  • Reply 20 of 27
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Outsider


    The real evidence that that's a hoax is that the oil companies would have had the administration shut them down a long time ago.



    True. Fuck Iran, we need to invade Erin.
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