Building a self looping "SMOT"

[minnie]

  Not really,the little red hen used her keyboard and found out what to do and how to do it.
She then followed the instructions and hence got a result.
  Mother nature is very very good at equations and she doesn't make mistakes.  I agree
gravity and permanent magnets will do work as will a spring, the catch is that once the
work has been done that's it!
                                               John.

[lumen]

@TK
You don't usually make a mistake as you have with confusing work with resistance. Energy/work is not required to slow a moving object, energy would need to be stored or converted or dissipated to reduce the energy of the moving object.
You call it negative energy and that is a point of view and is fine, but you cannot add negative energy to a system of positive value and end up with a larger positive value.
So placing a steel ball by hand into a magnetic field only reduces the potential energy.
Why?
Move to the extreme, I place the steel ball by hand tight to the magnet and thus leave how much energy in the system?

[elecar]

Hi all, no mystery with the magnets and bars. All  the magnets are the same orientation, N or S does not appear to make any difference.
The bars are actually just some steel brackets and I just play with them for shaping the field. The reason there is one way over to one side is that it was on the board and got attracted to the array when I was taking the picture.
The piece at the front is just aluminum channel and is used to hold the magnets in place, because they are all aligned the same the sides are in repel and the tight fit in the channel stops them flying away from each other.
I do not believe the aluminum channel holding the magnets makes any difference.

Normans track does not have a ramp that continues past the pointed end of the teardrop, and so you can not get the ball to roll backward and into the exit ramp as they are at the same point.
The magnets work the same, they pull the ball in whilst allowing it to roll down the ramp and out of the field.

Those who have sent PMs, I will get round to answering them, but there are so many to deal with right now.

[LibreEnergia]

@TK
You don't usually make a mistake as you have with confusing work with resistance. Energy/work is not required to slow a moving object, energy would need to be stored or converted or dissipated to reduce the energy of the moving object.
You call it negative energy and that is a point of view and is fine, but you cannot add negative energy to a system of positive value and end up with a larger positive value.
So placing a steel ball by hand into a magnetic field only reduces the potential energy.
Why?
Move to the extreme, I place the steel ball by hand tight to the magnet and thus leave how much energy in the system?

Nonsense.

Energy is required to slow a moving object. A force is required and it is exerted over a distance. Since the definition of work is force x distance then work is expended

Consider a rocket traveling to the moon (or anywhere in space) . To slow it down would require energy. We need to produce a force in the opposite direction of travel and that force is exerted over a distance. That is work done on the system.

[elecar]

Test video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSXhQOrE6dc&feature=youtu.be

Normans track video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHXTFfnon6g&feature=youtu.be