Gravity unbalance mechanism...

[MarkE]

.....is a simple replacement about an Atwood machine , playing a prolongation of a gravity unbalance : we substitute the string and the pulley with a lever , then the two unequal masses with two equal masses ( rods with a variable support point ).
     Al_ex

Under what circumstances do you think that you can move a mass from one point back to the same point and either gain or lose gravitational potential energy in the process?

[sm0ky2]

Under what circumstances do you think that you can move a mass from one point back to the same point and either gain or lose gravitational potential energy in the process?

IF the "VAP" - or variable arm procedure, as he called it
were performed by a process that uses less energy than the change in gravitational potential, it could work.
unfortunately, the few ways to do that are impractical or require a great deal of uncommon knowledge and practice.

for instance, of the radius was so great that one arm of the machine was in a region of lower gravitational force,
such that when you performed the "VAP", is used less energy than the arm has (potentially), when you perform the "VAP" again in the other direction.

or possibly a magnetic "VAP" like the Archer Quinn device

or perhaps, just perhaps, he could use a string that gained and lost tension as the arms rotated....
using the tension on the string to perform the "VAP".
- I know this may seem silly if you are not used to thinking outside of your educational box.
     however, there are many ways to do this without losing additional energy in the process.
     for example: a thermally isolated strip of material, with a high coefficient of expansion. (like Nitinol)
     with a closed loop heating and cooling cycle, that maintained its' total thermal energy.
     the expansion and contraction of the material could be used to perform the "VAP".
           there already exists devices that do this exact thing, using changes in ambient temperature to cause rotation. (very slow)
     
another "VAP" method might be to make the arm temporarily buoyant in air..... then lose its buoyancy at the right time.

[sm0ky2]

That's actually a very interesting design. It's worth doing the math here.

the math is very simple...

E = m*g*h

[MarkE]

IF the "VAP" - or variable arm procedure, as he called it
were performed by a process that uses less energy than the change in gravitational potential, it could work.
unfortunately, the few ways to do that are impractical or require a great deal of uncommon knowledge and practice.

for instance, of the radius was so great that one arm of the machine was in a region of lower gravitational force,
such that when you performed the "VAP", is used less energy than the arm has (potentially), when you perform the "VAP" again in the other direction.

So are you suggesting that some combination of levers can destroy energy going through a cycle in one direction and create it ex nihilo bot going through a cycle in the opposite direction?

or possibly a magnetic "VAP" like the Archer Quinn device

Archer Quinn never made a working OU device.

or perhaps, just perhaps, he could use a string that gained and lost tension as the arms rotated....
using the tension on the string to perform the "VAP".
- I know this may seem silly if you are not used to thinking outside of your educational box.
     however, there are many ways to do this without losing additional energy in the process.
     for example: a thermally isolated strip of material, with a high coefficient of expansion. (like Nitinol)
     with a closed loop heating and cooling cycle, that maintained its' total thermal energy.
     the expansion and contraction of the material could be used to perform the "VAP".
           there already exists devices that do this exact thing, using changes in ambient temperature to cause rotation. (very slow)

Do you have any verifiable evidence that any of these methods yield surplus energy cycle by cycle?  Or are you speculating?

     
another "VAP" method might be to make the arm temporarily buoyant in air..... then lose its buoyancy at the right time.