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submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

When I was a kid I came up with this design during a long road trip. I spent the whole time thinking I was some kind of genius, because how didn't anyone else think of this before?

You can imagine my disappointment when I got home and created my prototype.

[-] [email protected] 111 points 5 days ago

Young lady, in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

[-] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago

Because you need to put it on the back and have it repel the truck forward instead of attract it forward obviously

[-] [email protected] 45 points 5 days ago

Did you try flipping the magnet over? If you put the two north ends together they’ll repel instead of attract.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

The beauty is that you can make the mental gymnastics to make it work both ways.

If they are opposite, the magnet attracts the car which moves the magnet away creating infinite motion

If they are the same, the magnet is repelled by the car, moving it away, moving the car forward creating infinite motion

You can even do mental tricks to make the contraption go backwards: Opposites: car attacks magnet which moves the car backwards Same: magnet reppels the car which moves the contraption backwards

[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

By your though process shouldn’t the car be going backwards?

[-] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

If you ever talk to someone confused by this, maybe ask them to lightly push the front magnet in the direction it's trying to go.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

I tried that, nothing happened to the picture. why???

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Huh, try putting it next to the phone

[-] [email protected] 29 points 5 days ago

I tried something like that when I was about ten.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

I still hold feelings against the force range being so short. Too close and the wire bends. Too far and there is barely any attraction...

Ugh, I just want to break physics, let me be.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago

It would work if the repulsion/attraction only went in 1 direction. But since it goes both ways, they just cancel out.

Conversely, the fan version of this idea (fan blowing into a sail) does actually work. But it's nowhere near as efficient as simply turning the fan away from the sail to push you the normal way.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

What if u put the fan in the water?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

There's oxygen in water, so it could work

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Well because there the whole system now becomes the ship+air/water molecules rather than just the ship + you use energy to work the fan which imparts that energy to the air/water molecules. In the end the air/water molecules literally get pushed behind so the rest of the system can move forward.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Equal AND opposite

[-] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago

The wire/metal holding it needs to be springy and bobbing back and forth to generate the momentum, duh.... Half-assed implementation I say.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

Excellent! It is always nice to see people asking questions - the journey towards the answer should prove most enlightening! :-D

[-] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago

The magnet isn't strong enough.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

This works in Kerbal Space Program

[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Needs more magnets and some springs.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Why would it? Think about it, would the two magnet gets closer if the wheels started rolling?

[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

Not with that attitude they won't.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

Need a bigger magnet.

Also, how do they work?

[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

Real, totally heavily simplified answer. All atoms could be magnets, but most don't have a force because the electron orbitals aren't out enough. In fact just about everything can be explained by what the electron orbitals are doing. Even why the chair you're sitting in feels solid. It's the orbitals. See Richard Feynman's bit on magnets and the deeper lesson on knowing the right questions to ask.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

I love listening to Richard Feynman talk in those interviews

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

No, atoms with a symmetrical subatomic structure could never be magnets! And what would be the point of somehow enlarging the electrons orbit? You surely know a magnet needs a positive pole!

You are also definitely wrong about your third statement!You could never explain anything based on just the electron cloud, much less physics; a whole scientific field that generally works with the atomic core

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[-] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

they come from the ground so they have gravity in them

[-] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I am pretty sure the other guy is talking nonsense and he kinda didn’t explain anything, its basically an atom with such a subatomic structure where there are more electrons on one side than the other, making that side more negative! The whole deposit is made up of atoms facing the same way!

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQ7plIgcsKhof-nwcD7OcmJvJcNqtpjmpJjTA&usqp=CAU

https://www.coolmagnetman.com/images/maghow23.jpg

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[-] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Maybe it needs gas?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

need two separate vehicles and two magnets, one weaker then the other

so the weaker one will repell the other and it will kick forward moving the other forward and rinse and repeat at a sonic speed

thats gotta generate some kinda motion

[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This is basically how a ~~rail cannon~~ coil gun works, just with electromagnets that can reverse their polarity.

It's a powerful way to accelerate anything — I think it's most famously used in those types of metal roller coasters that start you at a flat-with-the-ground angle, and then just fuckin launch you up a ramp to 45° with electromagnets. The issue is that you need a fuckton of energy to do that.

What we need for true perpetual energy is to just capture that guy Blanka from Street Fighter.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

That's not how a railgun works, that's how a coilgun works. Railguns create a loop of electric current that flows into one "wire" (the rail), through the projectile into the other wire, and back down to the starting point again, this configuration creates a force that pushes the projectile down the rails

[-] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

Ah, I appreciate the correction. I'm not an engineer but the youngest cousin of a clan of them, so I just got the highlights of the true evil genius shit. :p

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

What we need for true perpetual energy is to just capture that guy Blanka from Street Fighter.

Surely that dude has to eat a lot in order to produce so much energy, no? Or is it just all stored somewhere in his body?

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this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
504 points (99.2% liked)

Memes

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A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


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