Simple Magnetic Overunity Toy
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The Simple Magnetic Overunity Toy (SMOT) is 1985 invention by Greg Watson from Australia that claims to show "over-unity" energy - a route to purported perpetual motion. In SMOT, a steel ball is pulled up a ramp by magnetism and then falls, so the magnetic energy is converted into kinetic energy. Watson claims that an effect called regauging then happens, allowing the process to be repeated without the application of outside energy.
Adherents say the device must be carefully tuned to work, and attribute any failures to poor adjustment. Skeptics note that many attempts have been made to use magnetism to overcome entropy, without success. The SMOT structure is also shown in Emil T. Hartman's patent, US4215330 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=4215330.WKU.&OS=PN/4215330&RS=PN/4215330). There are some predecessors and structures differ slightly, though they have common features.
In fact the device does not gather "free energy" as is sometimes advertised, but merely converts potential energy in the form of the steel ball's distance from the magnetic source to kinetic energy as it rolls towards it. No energy is produced, because when the ball drops from the ramp it is in a position of lower potential energy with regard to the magnetic field. If a SMOT is laid flat on the ground, the ball will roll through the magnets, come to a stop, and probably roll back (and forth) depending on the strength of the magnets and the surface it is placed on. The same kinds forces are at work in the swinging of a pendulum, but the illusion is created by the perceived increase in gravitational potential energy as the ball rolls up the ramp, while the eye is not attuned to see the decrease in magnetic potential energy as it moves towards the magnet.
External links
- Simple Magnetic Overunity Toy (http://www.geocities.com/MadisonAvenue/2439/smot.htm)
- Testing a SMOT (http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/smot.htm)