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To Stir, Or Not To Stir

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In my physics undergrad, we had one prof who seemed a bit strange. Actually, being only a bit strange seems something of an accomplishment for a physics professor, as most of them ran the gamut from odd to unintelligibly bizarre. But the one I’m talking about here was a younger guy who taught us about … Read more

Wired: The Experiments Most Likely to Shake Up the Future of Physics

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If you’ve been following Pop Physics (especially if you’ve stuck through the overlong and unannounced hiatus that started with the new school year) and are still in school, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll end up working for one of these projects someday! The Experiments Most Likely to Shake Up the Future of Physics Here’s … Read more

Free Energy! Only $7610

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Earlier this year, I posted about why perpetual motion and “Free Energy” machines are impossible. Soon after, I found someone trying to sell their own perpetual motion device on YouTube.

Today, I’m going to do one better: an indiegogo campaign called “Home Quantum Energy Generator” has raised $16,902 (far surpassing its oddly specific goal of $7,610) to build a protoype Free Energy device. This thing features several of the hallmarks of modern physics quackery:

  1. An inventor who is specifically not a trained physicist, but a “career Electronics Engineer”
  2. Layperson explanations that defy logic
  3. The word “Quantum” thrown in for good measure
free energy device video still
Also: magnets, of course.

Here are a few of my favourite quotes:

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Two Games That Mess With Relativity

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When you start to learn about Special (or General) Relativity, one of the first question you’re almost guaranteed to ask is, “Why do things get so weird when you approach the speed of light?” My favourite answer to this question is to say that if we lived our lives at relativistic speeds, our current low-speed, “normal” world would seem just as bizarre.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have access to the kinds of energies required to experience relativistic effects first-hand. Luckily, modern technology has provided us two glimpses into the kinds of mind-bending phenomena described by Albert Einstein.

First off, there’s the 3D, MIT-created, graphically beautiful game called A Slower Speed of Light. This first-person non-shooter, developed at MIT’s Game Lab, is free to download, so go try it out now. The goal of the game is to navigate a 3D world and collect spheres, which incrementally reduce the speed of ligh, amplifying effects like time dilation, Lorentz contraction, and the Doppler shift. Or in lay terms, stuff just keeps getting crazier.

A Slower Speed of Light
I'm sure the giant mushrooms aren't meant to imply anything at all.

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This Martian Life

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Well, it’s now just over a year since Curiosity landed on Mars. What better way to celebrate than a stop-motion video with a hard-rockin’ soundtrack? Here you can see this excellent robot wandering around the dunes, grabbing soil samples, and generally having a marvellous time, all through the fish-eye lens mounted on the front of … Read more

Size of a Neutron Star Compared to NYC

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Yes, it turns out the two things in the title of this post have comparable sizes. Who knew? A neutron star is a very old star that has burned off most of its energy and then collapsed into itself. As a younger star (such as our sun) undergoes the nuclear fission reactions that make it … Read more

Video: the Arrow of Time

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We’re halfway through our discussion of entropy, which is a perfect place to take a quick break for a video. It may not be very exciting, and it may not be very clearly explained, but it’s related to our current topic and may at least ignite your curiosity a bit. We’ve all thought about time, … Read more

New 3D Panorama from Mars

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This lovely 3D panorama, which was made by photographer Andrew Bodrov, is a stitched-together collection of photos taken by the Mars Curiosity rover. It’s a desolate image, but still immersive and a bit magical. From a related Wired article: “The best way to enjoy it is to go into fullscreen mode and slowly soak up … Read more

Brian Cox Introduces You To Quantum

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Here it is: a lifeline to get you through this Pop Physics drought. Professor Brian Cox, host of the excellent BBC series Wonders of the Universe, delivering a fun and insightful introductory Quantum Physics lecture. Complete with celebrities like Simon Pegg, a million-pound diamond, and a breathless northern English accent. Professor Brian Cox: A Night … Read more

A Real Perpetual Motion Machine, in the Wild!

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Somewhat coincidentally, I just came across this video of a supposed perpetual motion machine / free energy device via reddit. It’s a coincidence because my last post was all about perpetual motion and why it’s impossible. It may seem like a bit of an archaic problem to tackle, but as the popularity of this video shows, these things still pop up from time to time in real life. This one uses magnets, as most self-respecting perpetual motion con artists do these days.

My favourite part is in the video description: “This technology has been suppressed because it is a threat to the profits of the energy corporations.” Not sure how those tricky energy corporations haven’t managed to get this video taken off YouTube yet, but I suppose it’s only a matter of time.

So why doesn’t it work?

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