Has Reidar Finsrud created a perpetual motion machine?

Question

I found some websites claiming a Norwegian artist (Reidar Finsrud) created a true perpetual motion machine. Perpetual motion is a concept that would violate both the first and second thermodynamics' laws.

Here is a YouTube video showing the machine:

Is this a perpetual motion machine?

it looks like a low-friction ball track with lots of bells and whistles more than anything else. — John Dvorak, Oct 14 '13 at 00:46
If it really worked, he wouldn't be stopping it with his hand all the time. — Kenshin, Oct 14 '13 at 01:12

score 18 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:46

As discussed in my answer to a strongly-related question - Can permanent magnets be exploited to create energy? - there have been so many attempts to create perpetual motion machines like this one, that Adjunct Engineering professor, Dr. Kevin Kilty, has written an essay that provides categories and explains how they inevitably fail to be true Perpetual Motion machines.

Finsrud's contraption belongs in category 8: "Machines without losses or friction".

The Laws of Thermodynamics have been well-tested and verified in a wide-range of situations. A video showing a demonstration of a perpetual motion machine running for 30 seconds is insufficient evidence to overturn our acceptance of them.

Has Reidar Finsrud created a perpetual motion machine?

1 Answers1