Overunity is impossible! (and why you shouldn't care)

[emanresu]

Didn't define Ether...

[shruggedatlas]

Show me!

E=MC^2 is an equasion not a machine.

I know the nay sayers are always far smarter than the engeneers who design and build it. This is expecially true where nature is the builder.  Stick a fork in me I'm done.

Fine, I will show you.  For evidence of e=mc^2, you only need to look to nuclear power plants and weapons, which generate enormous amounts of energy from relatively tiny bits of mass.  These are not considered over unity.  The human body is also an amazing machine, but is similarly under unity.

[Esotericman]

Moab- a mirror is not a good example of a machine, since it doesn't actually do any work.  Remember work is defined as the distance a thing moves times the force required to do it.  In this case, zero force is required to reflect photons, so zero work is done.

But I think I see your reasoning, and it's exactly the sort of message I'm trying to convey!  Let me try to rephrase it...
Light strikes my face and reflects off of it.  Overall, that fact is useless.  But it could be said that this light has the potential to be reflected back, into my eyes, where it would be useful in determining whether I have ketchup on my cheek.  A mirror therefore merely "releases" this potential.

Same goes for the snickers bar.  For simplicity though, let's use a tic-tac, since it's smaller.  Even after you consider the harvesting of the cane sugar, refining process, construction of the factory, and all the energy man puts in to making a tic-tac, you are right- there is way more energy per tic-tac than man put into it.  But that doesn't mean I'm an over-unity device!  That extra energy is what was stored in the sugar molecule, which was formed by solar energy during the photosynthesis process in the Sugar Cane.  In fact, the ultimate source of all the energy we use here on earth is the Sun.

As for equations- what's wrong with them?
Based on Einstein's estimate of E=mc^2, that single gram of candy has 90 Billion KiloJoules of energy locked up inside it- or the equivalent of 21.5 Kilotons of TNT.  Is that enough for you?  Now that's if you destroy the matter.  In practice the energy release by the tic-tac into the human body is far less, but still.


Keep in mind I'm not trying to spoil your fun here, only get you to recognize that the goal to "free" energy is in releasing potential energy that's been stored for millenia, in new, more efficient ways.

[Liberty]

In the case of motors that use electricity and/or permanent magnets, there is a measurement of motor torque output that can be mathematically converted into electrical units (Power) to measure a motor's output capability in terms of electrical power output equivalent.  The input of electrical power can be compared to the calculated physical output torque of a motor converted into watts to determine "electrical efficiency" of a given motor. 

If one were to have a design that can make very good use of the kinetic energy output from permanent magnets in a motor, then it may be possible to exceed 100% electrical efficiency, but it is not possible to have a motor torque output be more than 100% efficient.  The 100% electrical efficiency barrier will not be achieved or broken unless the design of the motor is exceptionally good.

[Esotericman]

@Liberty
YES!  Exactly!  It is possible to exceed electrical unity.  But just like you said, it would be due to something else pitching in energy, like magnets.  That energy isn't free of course, it's just been stored in the magnet as potential energy. 

Ultimately everything has a fuel source, which will eventually be used up.  In the case of apparent OU devices, it just isn't clear yet what that source is.