Magnets, Inertia, and Gravity Device

[Turion]

Several years ago; back in the days before YouTube, when America Online was brand spanking new, I built a device that looked like a child's see-saw. It could move up and down. There were magnets that were not on the see-saw itself, but along both sides of the see saw when it was in the "down" position. When it was in the "up" position those magnets were below it. There was a track on the see-saw itself with a little wheeled cart that rode up and down the track. It had a large permanent magnet in it. When the weight of the cart forced that end of the see-saw down, The magnets on the side would would align with the magnets in the cart and repel the cart up the track and over the top. As the magnet on wheels started down the other side, its weight would tip the see-saw, and that side would come down, which put the magnet on wheels in conflict with the magnets on both sides of the see-saw on that side, so it would slow down, stop, reverse direction, and roll back up the track and over the top, starting down the other side.....etc. The wheels on the magnet were in aluminum channel to keep it from flying off the track as it went over the top. It would run until the moving magnet got bound up, which happened quite often, but I felt the device had potential. Basically it used magnetic repulsion to overcome the effects of gravity, and leverage and inertia to overcome the forces of magnetic repulsion. When the magnet was rolling down the hill it took magnetic repulsion some time to slow its progress, stop it, and reverse its course. But it ALWAYS got far enough down the hill to tip the see-saw in that direction, because it took time for the tipping see-saw to come all the way down and align the magnets in the cart with those on the sides. I kept adding weight to put as much weight on the little "cart" as magnetic repulsion could possibly move up the hill and over the top. This made it harder for the magnets to slow down and stop the rolling cart, but once it WAS stopped, they could reverse its direction and send it back up the hill. I had a setup on my bench for a couple years before I moved to California, and left it behind. I played not only with the amount of weights, but with the height of the folcrum, which changed the mechanical advantage. But it was a pretty simple setup and I believe it had a lot of potential. As the see-saw tips back and forth, that motion can be USED to do useful work. The larger the scale, the easier it is to build it without it binding up at some point. The larger the weights you use the more useful the work that can be done. The more powerful and the LARGER the magnets, the more weight that can be moved. But even with small magnets and an inexpensive model you can see the simple principle I used here. Hope this gives folks some ideas.

I do NOT have a working model of this right now, but it is one of the many things I would like to work on. It is always in the back of my mind. Especially when people tell me there is no such thing as perpetual motion. Is there really ANY part of what I just described that seems beyond possible? I admit that mine was always binding up, but I am not a machinist. Surely there is someone out there who could do a better job in a shop than I did with bits of wood, plastic and super glue in my garage.

Dave