Using Gravity and Buoyancy to drive a generator

[frare bear]

With these two opposing forces... should we not be able to generate non-stop motion and energy?

I have some plans drawn up, and will start on a prototype soon. Essentially it is a water column with one-way gates, where slightly-less-dense-than-water weights can travel upwards. The gates allow for control of the water pressure due to the column of water. Once the weight reaches the top of the water column, it descends on a belt-driven system that can turn a generator as well as operate any moving parts required on the machine itself.


...is there any reason this can't/won't work? It's as simple as utilizing natural motion that occurs in opposite directions.

[LibreEnergia]

With these two opposing forces... should we not be able to generate non-stop motion and energy?

I have some plans drawn up, and will start on a prototype soon. Essentially it is a water column with one-way gates, where slightly-less-dense-than-water weights can travel upwards. The gates allow for control of the water pressure due to the column of water. Once the weight reaches the top of the water column, it descends on a belt-driven system that can turn a generator as well as operate any moving parts required on the machine itself.


...is there any reason this can't/won't work? It's as simple as utilizing natural motion that occurs in opposite directions.

This cannot work. Buoyancy is caused by gravity. Without a gravitational field there is no 'buoyancy'. As such it is not a "opposing" force. Since gravity is the only force in play any machine utilizing it as the prime mover is subject to the limitation that gravity is a conservative field.

The energy gained moving a mass downwards is exactly equal to or less than the energy required to move this mass back up to the same position.

The situation with a buoyant object merely reverses this. It takes energy to submerge the object downwards. The energy gained as it rises is the same as it took to submerge. The net energy available to power a load in such a system is zero.

[frare bear]

EDIT: sorry, looking back at the OP I realize I gave a poor explanation. I will draw up and post a schematic later tonight

I don't believe you understood my explanation...


The buoyancy and gravity forces are utilized independently. It's essentially a density driven up/down motion, but instead of changing the density of the weight going up and down in water, the medium the weight moves in changes.

The weight rises in the water column, then said weight is transferred to a nearby column in which the weight drops through the air, to again be inserted to the bottom of the water column.





You seem to have thought I believed that the weight would somehow float and sink in the same medium... Otherwise the extremely simple physics and conservation principles wouldn't have been brought up.

[LibreEnergia]

EDIT: sorry, looking back at the OP I realize I gave a poor explanation. I will draw up and post a schematic later tonight

I don't believe you understood my explanation...


The buoyancy and gravity forces are utilized independently. It's essentially a density driven up/down motion, but instead of changing the density of the weight going up and down in water, the medium the weight moves in changes.

The weight rises in the water column, then said weight is transferred to a nearby column in which the weight drops through the air, to again be inserted to the bottom of the water column.





You seem to have thought I believed that the weight would somehow float and sink in the same medium... Otherwise the extremely simple physics and conservation principles wouldn't have been brought up.

It simply does not matter what geometry or mechanism you have come up with. It will not work.

In this case the act of making the buoyant object enter and leave the fluid requires energy. This energy is exactly the same amount or more than the energy than can be derived from the ascent of the object.

[frare bear]

Haha okay dude. I came here for feedback on design, to "bake" it the other halfway. I'll go back to where I came from