The perpetual motion machine (lat.perpetuum mobile) occupies a special and very prominent place in the history of science and technology, despite the fact that, in the opinion of modern science, it does not exist and cannot exist. The fact is paradoxical, but the search for the perfect engine has been going on for hundreds of years.
Perpetual motion technology has attracted people since ancient times. A perpetual motion machine in our time is defined as an imaginary device that allows you to get useful work more than the amount of energy imparted to it. In a broader sense, the term perpetual motion machine can mean not only technical devices, but also any objects of creative and inventive activity that have the properties of absoluteness, eternity.
Today, the scientific world considers this idea more pseudoscientific and impossible than vice versa, but this does not stop enthusiasts from creating more outlandish devices in the hope of violating the laws of physics and making a scientific and technological revolution. The original creators and stubborn inventors in our time are trying to develop an absolute engine, a perpetual motion machine, which, once launched, would do work for an unlimited time without attracting energy from the outside. Numerous inventors are working on new projects in this direction. One, apparently, the determining reason for the desire to create a new, unusual engine that works without the use of any resources, is the rapid development of science and technology: in our time, many "miracles" become reality. The idea of creating a perpetual motion machine that arose many years ago,does not die.
Apparently, so far the perpetual motion machine will remain “working” only in the imagination of its creators. Although the ideas of the creators of perpetuum mobile were utopian, attempts to materialize the idea, the controversy around it, brought a lot of interesting theoretical and constructive solutions, made it possible to identify new patterns, to see previously unknown processes.
History knows a lot of such "discoveries" and the destinies associated with them, their frantically enthusiastic authors, filled with the joys of creativity, the delight of the accompanying side results and bitter disappointments for the failed results.
The place, time and reason for the emergence of the idea of a perpetual motion machine is almost impossible to find out. It is difficult to name the first author of such an idea. The earliest information about perpetuum mobile includes, apparently, a mention that was found in the Indian poet, mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara, as well as some notes in Arabic manuscripts of the 16th century, stored in Leiden, Gotha and Oxford.
At present, India is rightfully considered the ancestral home of the first perpetual motion machines. Thus, Bhaskara, in his poem dating from about 1150, describes a certain wheel with long, narrow vessels, half-filled with mercury, attached obliquely along the rim. The first projects of a perpetual motion machine in Europe date back to the development of mechanics, around the 13th century. A universal engine capable of working anywhere would be very useful for a medieval artisan. He could set in motion the bellows that supplied air to forges and furnaces, water pumps, spin mills, and lift loads at construction sites. The creation of such an engine would make it possible to take a significant step both in the energy sector and in the development of productive forces in general.
By the 16th-17th centuries, the idea of a perpetual motion machine was especially widespread. At this time, the number of projects of perpetual motion machines, submitted for consideration to the patent offices of European countries, grew rapidly. Among the drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci, an engraving with a drawing of a perpetual motion machine was found.
Promotional video:
The concept of a perpetual motion machine has changed significantly over time in accordance with the development of science and the tasks that arose before the energy industry. The history of a perpetual motion machine is simultaneously the history of the formation and development of many areas of science, in particular mechanics, hydraulics and, of course, energy.
In the middle of the 19th century, as a result of the work of the German scientist JR Mauer, the English physicist J. P. Joule, and the German physicist G. Helmholtz, the First Law of Thermodynamics was formulated. Yu. R. Mayer formulated the principle of interconversion of thermal and mechanical motions and theoretically calculated the thermomechanical equivalent (1842), it was experimentally determined by J. P, Joule (1843), H. Helmholtz noted the universal nature of the energy conservation law (1847).
The first law of thermodynamics - one of the three basic laws of thermodynamics, is the law of conservation of energy for thermodynamic systems. It is often formulated as the impossibility of the existence of a perpetual motion machine of the first kind, which would do work without drawing energy from any source. According to the first law of thermodynamics, a thermodynamic system (for example, steam in a heat engine) can do work only due to its internal energy or some external source of energy.
The first law of thermodynamics is a postulate - it cannot be proved logically or deduced from any more general provisions. The truth of this postulate is confirmed by the fact that none of its consequences is in conflict with experience.
The second law of thermodynamics is formulated as the law of nature by H. L. S. Carnot (NLS Carnot) in 1824, P. Clausius (R. Clausius) in 1850 and W. Thomson (Kelvin) (W. Thomson, Kelvin) in 1851 in various, but equivalent wording. The second law of thermodynamics in the Clausius 'formulation states that a process in which no changes occur, except for the transfer of heat from a hot body to a cold one, is irreversible, i.e. heat cannot spontaneously pass from a colder body to a hotter one (Clausius' principle). According to Thomson's formulation, the process in which work turns into heat without any other changes in the state of the system is irreversible, that is, it is impossible to completely transform all the heat taken from the body into work without making any other changes in the state of the system (Thomson's principle) …Thomson's principle is equivalent to the statement about the impossibility of a perpetual motion machine of the 2nd kind.
The second law of thermodynamics is also a postulate that cannot be proved within the framework of classical thermodynamics. It was created on the basis of generalization of experimental facts and received numerous experimental confirmations.
Many physical theories have grown from the first and second principles, tested by many experiments and observations, and scientists have no doubts that these postulates are correct, and the creation of a perpetual motion machine is impossible.