Why is perpetual motion impossible? For example, can’t you just redirect some of the energy produced from a generator into keeping itself running?
In: Physics
We always lose some energy in the process. It’s sort of like going, “Can I pour water from a bottle into a cup, then pour that water back into the bottle, and keep doing that forever?” You could do it for a while, but eventually you are going to have some of that water evaporate, or spill some, and while it’d be only a few drops lost at a time, eventually you’d run out.
Perpetual motion is sort of like that. 100% efficient energy conversion isn’t possible with our current understanding of physics. So it’d be like “I take 100% of the energy from the generator, but am only able to get 99% of that energy back into it to keep it running.” You lose some energy as heat or light or friction or some other forms, and while you can be very efficient, after a while you will run out of energy that way.
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