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147 points rbanffy | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0.775s | source
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blueflow ◴[] No.42726585[source]
Take that ammonium, burn it, have heat, power a steam engine, infinite energy?

Where does that energy come from? 1st law of thermodynamics?

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1. BobaFloutist ◴[] No.42726969[source]
For our purposes solar power is effectively perpetual motion.
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2. blueflow ◴[] No.42727135[source]
And how does the presented device make use of solar power? Wind movement?
3. PittleyDunkin ◴[] No.42727631[source]
I see what you're saying in the sense of passive energy collection, but perpetual motion strikes me as a terrible metaphor. Perpetual motion would imply so many thing about the universe that solar can't deliver.
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4. dessimus ◴[] No.42727709[source]
If you consider solar only working for 50% of the day on average, "perpetual".
5. BobaFloutist ◴[] No.42741117[source]
For the purposes of anyone reading this, you can make a perpetual motion machine using solar power. I'm pretty sure modern engineering and materials are sophisticated to make a machine of some sort that collects energy during the day and stores it over night in order to continuously move for...I don't know, several hundred, several thousand years? Nothing overly sophisticated, since I wouldn't necessarily trust bearings or motors or hinges to last that long, but something that performs work without needing to be touched for multiple lifetimes.