Why we can’t attach some magnets onto a turbine and set them up to repel each other, causing the turbine to spin and producing energy.
Is it just not efficient? Or is there something else at play that would prevent this from working?
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You are forgetting the physical resistance that comes from having different parts rubbing/etc against each other.
> Why we can’t attach some magnets onto a turbine and set them up to repel each other
You’re gonna need to explain this setup. Because I can’t think of a setup that’s self sustaining in any way.
If a magnet repels something that object moves further away, which releases energy. The problem is to do that again you need to get it closed again, that requires energy.
So if you have a magnet on the rotating rotor and another on the stationary stator the energy you get from them replacing each other is equal to the energy required to get back to the original position.
You might think that you can turn the magnet on the rotor so that it is attracted to the stator magnet when it moves towards it and then turn around and it repels. The problem is turning it in the magnetic field requires a force and the work to do that is the same as the energy you get out of the repulsion.
Electromagnets that can be turned on and off does not help, the energy you can get out in put in there by the electricity.
So there is not free energy. Ideally you get back what you put in, in practice there is friction and energy losses in other way so you get less out then you put in.
You need the polarity of the magnetic fields to switch so that the next magnet isn’t just repelling it in the opposite direction of the first. To switch the polarity of the magnetic field you need energy, which essentially makes it an electric motor.
It’s the same reason gravity doesnt equal infinite energy. Like how you couldnt power a generator with a spinning wheel with a weight on one side. It always takes more energy to “reset the system” than it generates, thanks to the laws of thermodynamics.
In your device, eventually the friction and resistance on the turbine will slow it enough for the magnets to reach equalibrium, a resting state where they are repelled just enough to balance in place without moving.
Lets say you making your spinner. What will happen is the turbine will lock up at exactly the halfway point.
When a magnet pushes something away it cant force it “into” another equally powerful magnet. If the other magnet is stronger or weaker that halfway point will be farther or closer but eventually the forces will be equal and then the thing moving will stop.
Electromagnets work by flipping on and off so you arent pushing one into the other so much as you are reconfiguring the whole environment but the energy required to go on and off is net less than the amount of force the magnet produces so it is a loss.
Magnets have two ends. One end pushes against (repels) another when you line them up. Twist one magnet around, and they now pull together (attract).
In the circle inside a circle you’re thinking of, a magnet repels the magnet inside it. The next magnet in line now has its end that is attracted to the pusher outside. You might think that the magnets now pulling the next one is good. But no, it’s not trying to pull it so fast it goes by just to fling it away. It’s pulling it to try to stick together. So eventually the pushers equal the pullers and they just sit in place.
Magnetic fields work like gravity, just a little different scale. Take two magnets and they attract each other, and it takes effort to separate them. If you take two rocks they also attract each other, take a boulder and earth.
You can’t get infinite energy out of magnets for the same reason you can get infinite energy out of rocks rolling down hill. Either the rock was already on top, in which case you’re eating up the hill, or someone has to carry that rock to the top which takes way more energy than you’ll ever recover.
There are two sides to a magnetic field, so as the turbine spins, the other sides would also repel each other and push it back, it would eventually fall into an equilibrium where all the forces are balanced out and stop moving.
you do attach magnets to things that spin. We call them generators; the more load there is on the generator, the harder it is to turn because the magnets have to push more electrons so you need to constantly apply power to turn the generator.
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