Before we begin on this topic, many of you may not know what the term 'perpetual' means. Perpetual means something infinite or unending. Perpetual motion machines are machines that 'never end' and power themselves forever without any external energy source. Put simply, a machine that lasts forever on its own. The aim of perpetual energy is to get something to power itself without any external energy supply. Theoretically and only theoretically, a perpetual motion machine with leftover energy to power someting else. The answer to the title 'are perpetual motions machines possible' is no, but don't leave yet, let me explain to you why.

In the 16th century, a man named Bhaskara claimed to have discovered a way of perpetual motion. It consisted of an imbalanced wheel. The wheel had mercury in funnels and whenever the wheel spun, the mercury would fall down the funnel, making on side of the wheel heavier then the other. He believed that this cycle would continue forever, making the wheel spin forever, but there were a few flaws:

One of the flaws is the center of gravity. Because of the imbalance, the center of gravity in the wheel would not be where the axle meets the wheel. When the center of gravity is lowered, it drags the wheel down. Gravity also is another flaw. Because the center of gravity lowers the wheel down, when the wheel spins it creates friction and heat. This heat is energy escaping, meaning that eventually the wheel will stop spinning.

Many people have been using different types of variations of the example shown above for eg. instead of mercury, people put small balls or coins that go down a funnel. An example that has a different variation is the magnet and ramp. Imagine in your head that there is a ramp with a magnet on top. A metal ball would start at the bottom the ramp and be attracted the magnet. In front of the magnet, there is a hole in the ramp where the ball falls down and then goes back to the bottom of the ramp, repeating the cycle again and again. This would not last forever because one of two things would happen. 1) The ball would simply just stick to the magnet or 2) even if it did somehow manage to repeat the cycle without being stuck on to the magnet, the magnet would eventually degrade.

Perpetual machines that have been created by us humans do not exist. This is because of the first rule of thermodynamics; The law of conservation of energy. This saw states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, you cannot get out more energy than you put in. This could be represented by an equinox. Even is someone did invent a machine that powers itself indefinietly, it would still not work because of the second law of thermodynamics; that energy tends to spread, a common example could be friction. For something to be considered a machine, it would have moving parts or interactions with air or water molecules that would generate very small amounts of heat or friction. This heat or friction is heat, slowly escaping, even in a vacuum. This creates an imbalance in the first rule of thermodynamics, meaning that the machine would eventually cecase.

For something to be truly considered as perpetual, it would have to follow all the rules of thermodynamics; a machine that powers itself without any external source indefinietly without letting heat leech away energy. These 2 rules of thermodynamics prevent anyone creating a truly perpetual machine.