The Last Podcast Opinionated Web 2.0 News and Commentary

Steorn?

I was browsing Technorati early and noticed that steorn was one of the most searched for items. Having no idea what the commotion could be about, I followed a few links and it looks as if this company has challenged the scientific community to test its ‘free energy’ technology.

The took out an add in the Economist to publicize their challenge. Best discussion so far is on Slashdot.

We have developed a technology that produces free, clean and constant energy.

This means never having to recharge your phone, never having to refuel your car. A world with an infinite supply of clean energy for all.

Our technology has been independently validated by engineers and scientists – always off the record, always proven to work.

I agree with 360East, who wrote the best summary of the media reaction so far:

Wether the hoopla dies down soon or the story just continues to snowball, this will be interesting to watch, if only as a media phenomena. The counter on company’s website now shows that more than 33,000 people have registered to receive the results of the scientific jury that Streon is seeking to engage in its challenge.

Obviously I have no scientific qualification to examine the perpetual energy claim, but if anything, my gut tells me that being more than sceptical is the way to go here. The only question I have is: what’s in it for them? Was living a life of quiet huckstery not good enough for them anymore?

They posted a cute little video on Google to promote this, but it is short on facts – very short on facts.

tags: steorn, fraud, controversy

Very short on facts, indeed. The published patent for the “magnetic actuator” is strange. Trying to move something by “shielding” a magnet has no mechanical advantage because the best magnetic shield (Mu metal alloy, known for almost 100 years) does nothing but conduct the magnetic field through itself. It does NOT turn off the magnetic field surrounding the magnet, just concentrates it within the shield.
In order to do that, the shield is highly attracted to the magnet. It would take as much energy to move the shield to a point over the other magnet as it would to just move the magnets instead! Even more losses would occur due to friction of the extra bearings required. Fooling around with magnets to get free energy (try googling “magnet motors”) has been done by thousands of people thousands of different ways. It’s never worked.

You could get power from a magnet, but only by depleting it’s magnetism. As the mag field shrunk, it could generate a current in a coil of wire.

Magnets are not a power source! It appears that a magnet is energetic and powerful when something is attracted sharply toward it, but it always takes as much effort to pull the object back away. You might as well say that ski slopes are energy sources because you are pulled down them. Common sense, folks. No math needed.

Ty F. – Aug.28, 2006
“Thinking outside the (box) shield”. Ty F.
I can appreciate your logical expression Jeff but…
You may have stumbled right over the key to free energy from magnetics. It just may be found within your own writtings here,Jeff. Magnetics + ski slope(Gravity) = Energy. Free Energy? Let’s try to leave politics out of the equation for now.
Would the Energy from magnets somehow deplete the earths gravitational (pull) force? I think not. Also,frictions can be virtually eliminated from a refined mechanizm.Clean & efficient energy storage is a major factor also. I’m not suggesting an infinate ski slope…or am I ? Something that goes round & round perhaps!Hmm
LOL Stay tuned Jeff.
TyF.

Jeff Saxton – August 23, 2006
Trying to move something by “shielding” a magnet has no mechanical advantage because the best magnetic shield (Mu metal alloy, known for almost 100 years) does nothing but conduct the magnetic field through itself. It does NOT turn off the magnetic field surrounding the magnet, just concentrates it within the shield.

In order to do that, the shield is highly attracted to the magnet. It would take as much energy to move the shield to a point over the other magnet as it would to just move the magnets instead! Even more losses would occur due to friction of the extra bearings required.
You could get power from a magnet, but only by depleting it’s magnetism. As the mag field shrunk, it could generate a current in a coil of wire.

Magnets are not a power source! It appears that a magnet is energetic and powerful when something is attracted sharply toward it, but it always takes as much effort to pull the object back away. You might as well say that ski slopes are energy sources because you are pulled down them. Common sense, folks. No math needed.

if they are right then this world will be different world

Re”Obviously I have no scientific qualification to examine the perpetual energy claim, but if anything, my gut tells me that being more than sceptical is the way to go here. The only question I have is: what’s in it for them? Was living a life of quiet huckstery not good enough for them anymore?

They posted a cute little video on Google to promote this, but it is short on facts – very short on facts. ”

1. Let’s start at the very beginning:”Obviously [you] have no scientific qualification”
2. Then you accuse them of “living a life of quiet huckstery”. Don’t say ya didn’t. Based on what evidence?
3. On “short on facts – very short on facts” Now, if you were the inventor, having put thousands of dollars of your own money plus countless more bucks from very demanding investors, plus your own “sweat equity”, into the project, wouldn’t you be “short on facts” when you knew that that very expensive and hard-gotten information would be freely available at your and your investors’ expense to sweat-shops world wide, who could crank those generators out and shove it into the U.S. and other wealthy countries with narry a farthing to the inventors and their monetary supporters?

Re: “As the mag field shrunk, it could generate a current in a coil of wire.” True. Experiment shows that

Re: “… but only by depleting it’s magnetism.” You’re wrong!!!! Permanent magnetism is depleted by external stresses such as heat and impacts, not by withdrawing finite amounts of energy through loads.Permanent magnets do not contain depletable energy, but are converters of Vacuum Energy to useable form through same-direction electron spin. Through careful measurement, one would discover that it takes less energy to magnetize magnetic material than the total amount gotten from it when powering a load, except for losses against the magnet due to mechanical or thermal effects unrelated to powering the load.

Re:”Magnets are not a power source!” Wrong again!! They *can* be a power source, if the engineering is done right

Re: “It appears that a magnet is energetic and powerful when something is attracted sharply toward it” Partly right. It *is* “energetic and powerful when something is attracted sharply toward it”. Force * distance = work done – 1/2mv^2 etc.

Re:”but it always takes as much effort to pull the object back away.”
Partly right. “Always” is incorrect. It is *not* necessarily the case when one astutely re-directs the magnetic field through engineering during certain types of duty cycles. This includes the use of windings either around the magnets themselves or around core material, plus correct spatial manipulation of the shield as in the Steorn device. See Flynn Research’s articles on Parallel Path Technology for the winding example.

Re “Common sense, folks” In science, “Common sense” doesn’t always apply

On “No math needed” Wrong again!!! It’s highly non-linear, so, as in the days of Faraday and Lenz, brand new equations have to be worked out empirically – you know, tables of values? – looking for patterns? There’s yer “sweat equity”. Ya can’t do everything by theory, no matter how “logical”, and then have the bluddy gall ta think ya know it all.

I think that all this information is pretty cool. Just you guys are so mean and gay that its not even funny!!! But this information is pretty helpful, I guess.

P.S. Math is cool so get over it you hotos. and that means gay in spanish!

Yeah.This is pretty cool.Math is a helpful thing so please don’t be mean ok sorry about Andy he is just mad his favorite subject is math. ok bye!!!

Hi yall im from Canada and here we think you gize are “disrespectful” k so dont be mean and my grandaughter Coriina is working on a project about magnetic sheilding ok? Will she get shocked? write back ByeBye!

Hi what’s up?

Hi well did you gize stop bein mean? well whatever im NOT GOING TO COME TO THIS WEBSITE AGAIN it doesnt help me (what did ya say)

Hi I am Lynda Taylor’s daughter. I was born and died in a magnetic shield. If you don’t send this to everybody you know, I will sit by the side of your bed tonight and watch you sleep.

In answer to a model of how the system works, I suspect its pretty much like the one on my website. Regards