Free energy
From RationalWiki
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
Free energy is the idea that a low-cost power source can be found that requires little to no input to generate a significant amount of electricity. Such devices can be divided into two basic categories: "over-unity" devices that generate more energy than is provided in fuel to the device (an efficiency of over 100%, as compared to perpetual motion machines which demonstrate efficiency very close to 100% but not greater than), and ambient energy devices that try to extract energy from the environment, such as quantum foam in the case of zero-point energy devices.
Not all "free energy" claims are necessarily bunk. There certainly is energy to be had in the environment that may be harvested at zero cost. For example, in 2009 Nokia announced they expect to be able to gather up to 20 milliwatts of power from ambient radio sources such as broadcast TV and cellular networks, enough to slowly recharge a typical mobile phone in standby mode. [1] This may be viewed not so much as free energy, but energy that someone else paid for.
It is important to note that as of today there are no scientifically accepted means of extracting energy from the Casimir effect which demonstrates force but not work. Most such devices are generally found to be unworkable. Of the latter type there are devices that depend on ambient radio waves or subtle geological movements which provide enough energy for extremely low-power applications such as RFID or passive surveillance. [2]
Free energy is a popular research subject for fringe inventors, but because of a lack of positive results that meet scientific standards, the field has become a haven for investment fraud and pseudoscience.
Free energy runs in paradox with the first and second laws of thermodynamics; because of the relationship of entropy and work, either the amount of mass/energy in the universe would have to increase (in over-unity devices), or the amount of entropy would need to decrease for a free energy device to function.
[edit] But what abouts
Several ideas are often cited to continue claims of free energy.
- Maxwell's Demon - a thought experiment raised by James Clerk Maxwell. In practice, entropy reduced in one place is increased in another.
- Casimir Vacuum Fluctuations - takes place between two uncharged plates in a vacuum. It demonstrates a force exerted by the known virtual photon field, but not work.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Nokia researching passive energy gathering technology
- ↑ And are therefore not vastly different from solar cells. The skeptical television show MythBusters aired an episode addressing free energy in 2006; only the RF-capture device using a long-wire antenna proved workable.
