Free Energy Scams: No, Really, You Can't Break The Laws of Thermodynamics

"The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the
supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out
to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement
with Maxwell's equations — then so much the worse for
Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by
observation — well, these experimentalists do bungle things
sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second
law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing
for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation."


Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the
Physical World (1915), chapter 4



 


And yet, throughout the years and decades and centuries,
countless people have tried to convince others that they hold the
key to violating the laws of thermodynamics and generating
limitless amounts of free energy. Here, in the spirit of
narrative fun, we explore the vast array of free energy scams
that have been perpetrated over the years - from the age of PT
Barnum style "inventors" to the age of GoFundMe and the tragic
tale of the self-recharging battery. It didn't work. None of them
work. Not the nuclear reactor that was secretly powered by wires.
Not the magic liquid that could turn water into gasoline. Free
energy is a scam as old as time, and yet people still seem to be
taken in by it - often to the tune of millions of dollars.

If you take only one thing from Physical Attraction, let it be
this: 

It's much easier and infinitely likely that the laws being broken
are laws that prohibit fraud, and not the Laws of
Thermodynamics.

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you can discuss any comments, questions, concerns, suggestions
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from you. If you're trying to sell me your free energy device,
please, feel free to pitch it so that I can laugh and then report
you to the authorities.

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Thanks for listening, and tell fellow thermodynamic systems about
the show!