I decided not to get into why perpetual motion isn't possible. Would you like to see a separate video about that? The sponsor is Incogni: The first 100 people to use code SCIENCE at the link below will get 60% offi: https://incogni.com/science

yes

I think a lot of people have a basic idea of it, but having its own video couldnt hurt!

Me! I think you have a real talent in explaining complicated things in simple terms. Keep it up!

I'm up to see your take on the whys, TIA

NO! Because it always descends into comment chaos. It comes down to anyone interested already knows why and the people that don't either don't care or actively don't believe why.

Careful, or soon you'll have too many small kitchen appliances!

heres the boi

sounds about right

I believe that stuff is called Delaware. It's like Tupperware but just lurks at the back of the cupboard, never to be used again.

You can never have too many small kitchen appliances! My air fryers are best friends and both similarly haunted by the same ghost.

Hi, Alec

I laughed so hard at the "Thankfully, through the magic of buying two of them" bit! Oh man, this is the crossover I needed today.

This made my day!

He really knows his audience

I'm still laughing about it! I love watching his disection/explaination/history vids. And he nailed it.

And then the music and outtakes at the end. Brilliant! 😂

The Magic of Buying Two of Them™

It's hilarious seeing people on twitter who believe the device is a breakthrough in "perpetual motion."

Oh hi, Mark!

This has got to be the strangest spot I’ve seen Mark Dice pop up😂

Never expected Mark Dice here, I'm not on Twitter to have heard about this, I'm just looking up random thoughts I'm having on Youtube lol

Even if it existed you would still need to extract energy from the system to make anything useful

Nice to see you here, Mark! Didn't expect it. I still think it might yet be possible, but the patents were seized by glowies long ago.

“The hardest part about making a perpetual motion machine, is finding where to hide the batteries”. Also loved the Technology Connections references!!

And there it is, the same comment copied and pasted in every video about this toy.

​@@angrykermit3192username checks out lmfao

@@angrykermit3192silly frog, it's not just this toy and the comment is probably older than YouTube. People like quotes, even if they don't know who said them...this is not news.

I love the term "perpetual motion simulator." I have an ex whose dad is a "mentalist," basically somewhere between a magician and clairvoyant, but he starts his shows by openly acknowledging you're about to see parlour tricks you could learn on the internet, and criticizing self-proclaimed psychics etc as flagrant shysters. Of course the appeal of his show was he'd been practicing those "parlour tricks" for years and could still leave an amateur wondering how he did it. Always liked that approach Who are you people?! Leave me alone...

Huge fan of that approach

Very similar to Penn and Teller's approach to magic. They make it very clear that they are performing tricks that just feel like magic.

You dated Banachek’s daughter?

I love "magic" even though I know it's "fake". I mean, when performed to perfection it's like watching a violinist or soccer player that has put years of passionate practice into their art. Wonderful approach to tell the audience off the bat that it's all an illusion that simply takes a lot of practice to get to look good.

The beauty of this device is that he made the visible components out of such simple materials, wood and steel rails, which automatically disassociate it with tricky electronics. If it had a plastic box base you would immediately suspect that there was something inside it but our general experience is that wood is solid.

@@spindoctorwinaps No shit sherlock holmes

@@spindoctorwinapsThe point was that we assume wood, unlike plastic, is solid. The poster and everyone else watching the video knows there are electronics in the wooden base.

@oldbloke135 Good point mate, appreciate you putting it into words. 👍

Nice to see inside the thing! When I saw it first time I thought they made a CGI machine.

You've been watching too much Captain Disillusion. ;)

Btw Steve Mould did ElectroBOOM's job here. THE RECTIFIER!

Your comment didn't blow up yet...

I also thought it was CGI. The ball's movement seemed fake/unnatural.

🤣🤣🤣@@The_Potionist

I like how all my favorite tech and science youtubers are aware of each other and watch eachother's content. It feels like one big family in a way lol.

Yeah, this is what peak TV felt back in the day. Also why I don't subscribe to Netflix et alia

What are some other good channels? Thanks

This just destroyed me believing this worked without a gadget my whole life 😢

I just love that Technology Connections is popular enough to be satirized! It's awesome that he's gotten that big!

It’s lovely to see some serious effort put into drawing attention to the original creator. Well done. On another note, perpetual motion machines have always been such a fascination for me. I was around 10 when I came to understand why they couldn’t exist. Since then I have found it infinitely (pun entirely intended) entertaining to see people try at the impossible, either honestly or with the intention to scam. Thanks for the video.

I have always loved the concept of working towards intractable problems. Just because something is impossible doesn’t mean that you will not find out something useful in the process. I suggest everyone try to square the circle at some point in their life.

Its always nice to see technology connections getting some love. And the bloopers were perfect lol

I admit: I'm tickled by the idea that the (shall we say) Technology Connections universe AND the Steven Mould universe are somehow in the same continuity. :D

I chuckled at the technology connections parody!

@The8BitGuy I legit laughed at "the magic of buying two of them", and always love seeing you tubers spreading the love. Including you and your fabulous channel.

Everyone did. Like, _everyone_

I wasn't fully paying attention at that moment and I was real confused for a second or two

You're next, you know? Steve will casually fix some retro computer in the next video as a homage.

what is this? the crossover episode?

The way the ball that's just been launched back into the holder at the top is usually the one to drop again is quite fascinating.

The way I like "perpetual motion" stuff is by looking at them as if they're magic tricks. Of course, the scammy side of it is bad, but things like the one on the video is like a magical artwork. It tingles with your logic, and it got you thinking on how it works. It just looks fun.

It's so cool that it was made like this! I had a similar thought process once I first saw it but had no idea how to verify if it functions like that without getting one myself. Had no idea it was available for purcase!

I've seen these around for a while but now I desperately want one so I can see how my cats will react to it. That said, this was a really fun breakdown and it's really cool that the creator was able to make a transparent version so you could see and explain the trick to the whole thing.

LOL. Cats will slap the balls in midair. LOL

They will be fascinated. For about 90 seconds.

Thanks for showing how it worked, I thought it was simpler, like voltage on the wires. Such a pretty woodworking job on the product and clever design.

The Technology Connections shoutout was spot on. Including the facial expression Alec makes. Made me chuckle. ❤️

Absolutely!

I've used the "magic of buying two of them" phrase in front of my wife to her consternation.

For a second, I was confused and had to double check which channel I was watching. Like, I knew it wasn't Alex, but thought maybe it was a guest host thing or something .

XD @TechnologyConnections

I've watched so much of both channels that it took my brain a hilariously amount of time to figure out what wasn't right with the image I was seeing lol.

I have always been curious how those things work. I have known perpetual motion isn't possible in the way this unit portrays but I never bothered to look into how it works. Very clever!!!

Love to see the homage to Technology Connections. His and your videos are both fantastically informative!

There is actually a type of gun based on this principle called the coil gun. It has to be a ferrous projectile, but you can make a projectile go really really fast if you arrange coils in series, and put a similar interruptor to shut off each coil as the projectile approaches.

You are probably great at impersonations bc the way you captured TC's incredibly awkward manic smile and stare to the camera was impecable

Well done William for being a sport ,, and a great video all round , its way more complicated than I imagined.

Now Technology Connections just needs to make a transparent, 2D version of something and YouTube will be complete

It'll be a "perpetual" colab...

He made a dishwasher with a window that one time

​@@jeremyfsaldanaOh my God you're right he's literally already done it!

Watch it be a heat pump…

@@jeremyfsaldana It checks for transparent, but fails the 2D part.

Man.. from the moment I saw these things I just KNEW that it must have something to do with the metal legs supporting the rail making/breaking some circuit when the metal ball passed by. Honestly something like that would probably far too unreliable/finicky. Really cool to see how these actually work.

You make a good teacher, kids can begin to grasp concepts from your videos with little input from others. Very complete, and...fun.🙂

Oh my god. Seeing Steve in Alec's set makes me happy in a specific way I've never quite felt before. Greenscreen or not.

This is ingenius! I'd expected a current through the ball and a fixed magnet in the base, which probably wouldn't have given it enough oomph to reach hopper again

Hi Steve I have watched several of your videos. You are clearly a very talented person. I was a always interested in learning more about unusual things.

That’s almost cruel, given how hard Alec has worked to convince people that his background is _not_ greenscreened. 😂

That's what makes the joke *so good* xD

Would have been even more cruel if he had used an animated image so the lava lamp would look like it's doing its thing

TechnologyConnections needs to see this, and probably already has.

Doubtless he joyfully gave permission and watched in glee

I wasn't expecting this colab but now that its happened I've retroactively realized I needed it in my life.

May favorite part about perpetual motion machines: even if you could somehow completely remove friction, it’s still impossible to get any work out of it.

Reminds me of the old pendulum clock once used as a time standard in the post office telephone exchange where I once worked. It used a switch to activate an electromagnet to give the swing a a kick every few swings when the amplitude dropped to a specific level.

the perfect bounce back into the hole at 1:52 was so satisfying

I laughed out loud, alone in my house, at the Technology Connections reference! You are both w of my favorite channels thank you so much

The first Technology Connections bit got me good. But the bloopers, fudging around with the camera remote? That's how you know Steve is a real one 💯

I had to check the captions to see if it said "🎶 Perpetually smooth jazz 🎶"

no because steve doesnt have actual subtitles like Alex, only the YT autogenerated ones

@@t0biascze644 No, Steve does have actual subtitles. But he did forget to include the "adverbly smooth jazz" part.

Have fixed the captions now to reflect TCs videos. All my videos do have human generated captions, but shamefully they're usually not available until a few hours after publication.

@@iout sorry, when i wrote that comment there were only the ai ones 😓

I'd guess that in the "dissected" version the magnets distance and thickness of the base was enough to stop the ball getting kicked since the "professional" version seemed to have the magnet much closer to the track.

I really love those sometimes subtle cues of acknowledgement of other channels. Here though it was clear as a day and I really liked it. 😂

This is beautiful. I could get one just because it's mesmerizing to watch

I could hardly stop giggling at the references to Alec's video's 🙂

Omg the "buying two of them" had me doing a double take. Loved it!

The toughest part of designing a perpetual motion machine is figuring out how to hide the battery

My Overunity Generator doesn't need any battery.

​@@EdgarRoockyes it doesn't, it runs on electricity from live wires

@@EdgarRoock if you can prove it scientifically noble prize awaits for you😂😂

@@EdgarRoockYeah, it only needs live wires 😂

I'm not sure how you could say this after seeing the engineering that went into this design.

Really great of the creator, William, to work with you on this. Nice video.

Id like to see one of these that has a long track, with multiple booster sections, a mini roller coaster.

Just love the way you put parts of Technology Connections in this video. Made me smile 👍🏻

Very cool device and a fantastic explanation of why and how it works. Great, informative video

Marvelously done! Both this vid and the original invention. Wow.

Glad you enjoyed it! Making the clear one was a blast!

Cool idea you had there! Have you considered making one using the lorentz force instead, like a little railgun? That would be so freaking cool. All you'd need to do for the rails is make them two separate pieces instead of a loop, and then of course, uh, build the gun part. But railguns for low power applications are actually stupid simple to make. The US Navy is using low(er) power railguns to launch aircraft from the latest generation of carriers, so maybe you could make a themed one?

I really like the look of the transparent one.

thanks william!

You do nice work. Thanks for allowing us all to see how it functions 👍

You did a brilliant job. It looks fantastic!

I saw in another video by a different youtuber one that seems to be a "copy", but instead of using an electromagnet, it has a little motor moving a little roller insode the hole of the funnel to give the balls extra acceleration. You can identify that design because it makes a lot of noise.

Pretty cool, those induction sensors are also how traffic lights work.

Knowing how this works only makes it better. ..I luv the clear version also

I really like when youtubers reference each others channels, makes it feel like a nice little community here

I saw one of these copies on Amazon a while back, one of the reviewers angrily declared that "... it's not a real perpetual motion machine..." 😂

0:59 - Man, I thought we were going to get some awesome technology connections collab there and have Alec explain electromagnetism for 30 minutes.

Oh that would have been great!

or how it was connected to the refrigeration cycle

@@phoenixsmith6026 I literally laughed out loud! Good one, thank you.

Yeah, so did I. * sigh *

Oh that's a good one! Really made me lol

The guy with the design just held back so you'd pay him to make you a clear one. In all seriousness, this is really freaking cool

Loved the technology connections references as well as the science! Great video sir

I would love to see a cone for the ball to land in rather than a platform so it's even faster!

The green screen was good, had me thinking you guys were doing a collaboration for a second... which you totally should.

I love how every con-mans sales pitch for their perpetual motion machine is "How ISN'T it perpetual motion?" Every....single....time.😂

The Technology Connection references were absolutely delightful. It's fun to think that you enjoy his idiosyncrasies too.

As soon as I saw the background I had to chuckle. Loved the cheesy credit sequence as well 😁

It cracked me up, LOL.

I legit started wheezing. The use of TC's description style for the music in the closed captioning - in this case "*painfully smooth jazz*" - was a nice touch.

@@erischaos It would've been even better it if said something like "magnetically smooth jazz" (since TC started using adjectives that relate to the topics of the video) 😁

@@HassanSelim0 I did think that, but I still give it an A for effort.

Fascinating! My thanks to both you and William.

For the motion amplification camera - I'd love to see bone conducting headphones! I swear they have nothing to do with bones, but just vibrate the skin and ear itself, particularly the tragus. Why else would they get louder when you put your finger in your ear? Can we see how much of your skin they vibrate?

I would just love it if someone could build one of these with solar panels and batteries hidden inside the device, so that if placed in a suitable location it would just keep going until something (probably the solar panel) breaks... which still could take several decades.

I'm afraid the batteries won't work for decades. As well as solar panels outside.

Are you willing to put your life on indefinite hold so you can test that theory? Probably not.

Loved the Technology Connections bit. And your ballerina impression

Entertaining thanks. Wonder if you know about one wave machine. Many years ago, it was seen on desks of shrinks. It looks like a square glass tube with blue water tossing inside forever..like a see saw.

I felt so much childlike joy from that Technology Connections bit and outro. I am still smiling. Well done and thank you, Steve

indeed! XD

Lmao, “through the magic of buying two of them” is my favorite technology connections line

I wonder if you could harness the power of the falling ball as it goes down the track

Interesting! Thanks for taking the time to make this video!

I had always assumed there was a potential across the rails and it worked like a rail gun

The Technology Connections ending caught me by surprise. Was like entering in a parallel universe or something

Was not expecting the magic of "buying two of them" would spread to this channel, but was very pleased to see it and the commitment to do the reference justice 😂

I assumed Alec helped out with the background and the template for the credits - since clearly Steve wouldn't steal trademarks (not registered, probably; but these are really good people).

A very nice episode, thank you! And that nod to Technology Connection, lol!

Anyone have an idea of how to go about making the modified base? I'm not much of a handyman but I wanted to make something like that awhile back and this is exactly how I envisioned it lol

I enjoyed that - and it was thoroughly educational too for my simple mind - I will probably go and buy one. I hope you'll get a small commission when I do so. The acknowledged inventor is a clever guy and deserves his reward too.

Thank you!

The hardest part of perpetual motion is finding where to hide the batteries

I knew when i saw it what happened. but i never figured a proximity sensor. I thought a conductive path was formed when the ball hits the rail. Not possible because they are shorted at the end but i figured that might be plastic or something.

Somehow I felt proud of Alec the moment you said "through the magic of buying two of them". This made my day.

I've been subscribed to him since his video on flattening the cylinder to invent records.

THIS! YES! my heart was so full for him

Bravo William! If I ever buy one, I will definitely get it from you!

Loved the "Technology Connections" parody. Hope he does one of Steve Mould maybe stood in front of a red pipe, (Steve's older videos.)

You know you’re legend, when other YTers refer to you in such a respectful way.

By the magic of buying two of them.... I looked at the background. I love technology connections. Didn't except to see it here. Iove this crossover!

Thank you! I seen it a bunch of time and they always said it electromagnet, but this is the first time someone explained how they detect the ball to turn it on and off!

Alec and Steve need to do a collab or nine where they play around and explain old and weird science experiment apparatuses with high interestingness in excruciating detail. It should be named Mouldy Technology and it will be magnificent! Edit: Forgot a

yes i need a colab

Oh, my. Yes!

yussssssssssssssss!!!!!11111oneoneone

I will subscribe to this and watch every episode!

Mouldy Connections. And both of them will wear fuzzy green jackets.

I woulda liked to have a bit more of the part where you failed to make one yourself, just to see how far along you got it / which step seemed to fail for it.

On the sales calls... If they ask something like "is this so-and-so" or "can you hear me" the natural inclination is to respond with a "yes". A scammer will record you saying "yes" and patch that into a conservation where it appears that you are agreeing to purchase whatever it is they are selling.

your transducer ring on the original one needs to be mounted to the underside of the plexi, below the ramp. It cant see the ball bearing, so it doesn't fire the electromagnet.

Ah! I bought one of the knock offs. I didn’t know there were knock offs until watching this video. The description said something like “Learn about electromagnets”. But when I turned it on it was super loud and had these wheels at the ball entrance to launch it. I was like oh this is dumb. But now I understand I got ripped off

The jlc Atmos uses the difference of air temp to heat a gas(can't remember) in an accordion like chamber pump that powers a main spring in the clock. As long as the temp changes it can indefinitely run.

The use of Technology Connection's set is A-1 amazing, I love it.

The closest you can get to a perpetual motion system would be a gear train that rewinds while it's being used like an automatic mechanical watch. But the watch itself rewinds by using the kinetic energy of your movement to rewind the spring via a pendulum that functions when you walk or shake the watch.

Steve, there is another contraption that I saw a design for over 10 years ago. It was like a wheel, with 2 rows of tubular magnets (looks like a gear almost) with slowly converge inwards until you hit the "reset" point. By holding a magnet close, the wheel will spin UNTIL it hits the reset point. I'd love to see you build this design but with some kind of a light weight mechanism to either move the magnet away from the reset point or something.

The configuration does not matter. There will always be a point where the machine can't overcome that hump and gives up, like the ball when the magnet is left on, or left off.

I figured out how it works already in the beginning without hearing the explanations, I knew right away that it probably uses a magnet that is being controlled (turned off/on, by you saying it uses batteries it implied its the case) and a detector sensor for knowing when to turn on the magnet power to repel the ball at the right moment to make it go up back to the initial starting position of the ball to make another round possible.

This first episode of Mouldy Connections was excellent and I look forward to many more.

Ah, Mouldy Connections. Like when you find a lost gadget that's had a battery in it for 6 years.

Perfect name!

Lol'd at the comment, exactly what i was thinking when i heard the credits music 😄

If possible, yes

On the very first glance of this, I assumed it was using the metal rails as contacts. So as soon as a ball bridged the rails, it would trigger a 555 timer (or similar) to pulse the electromagnet for a specific amount of time. ie. the average timing of a ball as it travels down the rails will be fairly similar each time, so maybe it could work just by pulsing the magnet for a short time (and after a preset time delay). I also thought that maybe the circuit used the change in inductance of the electromagnet as the ball passes closer to it, so it knows when to power off the magnet again. But apparently not. lol Seems like it needs the proximity coil to get the timing accurate enough.

I always thought like im sure most do, that it was a clever use of an electromagnet. The engineering of it was way more clever than i expected though.

I like when the trick isn't 'hidden' at all, but isn't obvious where the energy is coming from. Like the drinking birds. It gets energy to keep going via evaporative cooling, but that isn't obvious. Well, until the cup runs out of water and it stops.

best crossover in a long time. the Ven diagram of people you like both of those channels consists exclusively of smart people :D