Simple Magnetic Overunity Toy
The
Simple Magnetic Overunity Toy (SMOT) is
1985 invention by Greg Watson from Australia that claims to show "over-unity" energy — a route to purported
perpetual motion.
In SMOT, a
steel ball is pulled up a ramp by
magnetism and then falls, so the magnetic energy is converted into
kinetic energy. A SMOT-like structure is shown in Emil T. Hartman's
patent.
[Hartman, Emil T., "". USPTO.] Watson claims that a
mechanism called
regauging happens that allows the cycle to be repeated without the application of outside energy.
Scientists note that many attempts have been made to use magnetism to overcome
conservation of energy, without success. Adherents claim the device must be carefully tuned to work, and failures are usually attributed to poor adjustment in the device.
The SMOT is very simple indeed. It consists of an
inclined plane, two permanent magnets, a steel ball and a track. The inclined plane has a vey low grade, but still enough to provide a considerable gain in height. The track is positioned so that it is directly in the centre of the inclined plane. Usually, the surface of the track is almost flush with the inclined plane's surface. The two permanent magnets are long bar magnets, polarized with their poles being at the long side, that are placed almost parallel to the track, but the poles nearest to the top of the inclined plane are closer to the track than they are at the bottom. The SMOT works because the magnetic field is stronger when the magnets are closer to the steel ball and each other, and since the net force is towards the top of the ramp, the motion of the ball is also that direction, making the ball move up the track. This is why it is imperative that the magnets are constantly getting closer to the ball, in order to create a net force upwards. The track serves to keep the ball away from the magnets.
If the track is not constructed carefully a slight imbalance can send the steel ball off of the track into one of the magnets.
The device does not gather "
free energy" as is sometimes advertised. It does convert potential energy in the form of the steel ball's distance from the magnetic source to kinetic energy as it rolls towards it - just as is done by any object when it falls. Similar forces are at work in the swinging of a
pendulum, but the representation is created by the perceived increase in gravitational potential energy as the ball rolls up the ramp. The eye is not attuned to see the decrease in magnetic potential energy as it moves towards the magnet.
* Simanek, Donald E.,
"Testing a SMOT". LHUP, June 23, 2004.
*
"[1]".
