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Expensive lipstick on a free-energy pig

One of my favourite things to write about is free energy.

In case you didn't know, apparently the universe is filled with free energy that we can extract from the ether and use to power our homes, our cars and create limitless wealth.

Note that I used the word "apparently" because I'm an engineer with a modestly good understanding of science -- therefore I have extreme levels of skepticism whenever someone pops up and claims that they're on the road to building an over-unit (aka perpetual motion) machine or something that extracts this "free energy" from the universe around us.

These scams, and I use the word scam without reservation, seem to come in waves and prey on the stupid and gullible amongst us. Usually it's someone who has read a little about basic concepts such as electromagnetism and confuses voltage with power. They figure "bigger is better" so if I can boost a voltage I must have increased the power being generated.

Gosh, if I'm puting 12 volts in and getting 24 volts out I can feed half that back to the input and use the other half to power my house, car, whatever forever... right?

Now I know that the vast majority of those reading this column are very much aware of the relationship betwee voltage, current and power. You're not going to be fooled by someone deliberately, or out of ignorance, claiming that they have the secret to limitless free energy.

Of course that won't stop the stupid or evil in our society from preying on the even stupider and gullible, so the scams continue.

Here's a YouTube video that claims that "This Clean Energy Breakthrough is Happening in My Garage", waste a few minutes of your life watching and marvelling at what's being presented.

Yep, it's the same old stuff presented, yet again.

This guy seems to have built a device that he reckons will pluck free energy from the ether through the magic of magnets, back-EMF, ions, electrons and other really sciency-sounding stuff.

Take your average "man on the street" and he may well believe some of this stuff... after all, there are blinking LEDs and whiteboards involved and it's on the internet so it must be true... right?

So far, according to the spreadsheet figures in the video, this bloke has spent over $18,000 on developing this machine which appears to be nothing more than a crude form of brushless electric motor.

Why do I call this a scam, instead of simply a deluded guy who only knows enough about the science involved to draw ludicrous and inaccurate conclusions?

Well he's actively soliciting donations and is running a crowd-funding campaign designed to suck more money out of the pockets of the gullible -- to the tune of $22K already.

On that GoFundMe page he espouses all the usual BS about "suppressed patents" and statements such as "When that magnetic field collapses, the initial input voltage (starting at 120 volts) is amplified into several thousand volts."

There you go, I told you so.

I guess PT Barnum was right but maybe I have no right to stand in the way of a fool and their money being parted, however once again I have to point out that this sort of scam adversely affects every legit startup that goes out looking for funding. Those who get their fingers burned by fakery like this will likely never be prepared to invest in a real sci-tech breakthrough idea even when it is offered to them.

The reality is that there is no free energy. The laws of thermodynamics remain unchanged and unviolated. The promise of a machine that generates an over-unity output is pig and no matter how much lipstick in the form of scientific jargon and terminology you slap on it, it will always be a pig.

Is this guy simply deluded or is he just another in a very long list of folk who have figured out that it's pretty easy to confuse people with science whilst picking their pockets?

Carpe Diem folks!

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