Posted by Darren (208.143.232.66) on May 19, 2003 at 11:25:42:
In Reply to: Things are happening this year...take that, newton! (A bit OT, but cool) posted by Vector Viper on May 19, 2003 at 04:28:20:
: Here is an action without reaction drive;
: the model looks REALLY simple to build,
: and runs on compressed air...
: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free-energy/files/dup_drive/
: You MUST download the movie,the device seems to have 3 parts,
: the outer tube,an inner tube, and a ball.
: (+ air valves, etc.) The ball almost does not move,
: the inner tube pumps back and forth...very odd!!
: Search on DUP drive on Google reveals very little yet-
: man this is the year of things happening!!
Saw this on free_energy Yahoo group a week or two ago... Some observations:
In the video there are a few places where you see the little doohicky in action...
||00:25: the care wiggles a bit and then drives forward... but if you watch it a couple times you see the car moves slightly in the opposite direction of the weight no matter what direction it's moving in... and then drives forward when the weight bumps into the front. Okay... so I put on the brakes when the weight goes backwards and then release them when the weight hits the front. Brakes (or wheels that only turn one way) stop the backwards reactional force and the forward force moves the car forward. Nothing strange here.
||0:56: you see it only from a distance and you see only one "pulse" of thrust. The narrator also says "it kept on accelerating of it's own accord" but that behavior is not evident in the video. On the contrary, the car apears to slow slightly as it reaches the end of the table.
||1:10: you see the car move across the table, pulsing several times, apparently keeping itself moving... but if you look carefully you'll see that each time the weight shifts back for another pulse the car slows a little, and then again when the weight moves forward... and then it speeds up when the weight hits the front of the tube. This is totally normal as far as physics go and proves there *are* reactional forces happening in the car. What you are actually seeing is this... from a standstill the car uses brakes or one way wheels or something similar to absorb the initial heavy reverse reactional force, and then the weight flies forward and strikes the front of the tube... the car starts rolling... as the car is rolling, if you let the tube drift backwards a little you won't see the car lose too much forward momentum at all, but you will see a small loss when it slides forward again for another strike to the front, which imparts forward forces... The *net* sum of all of these forces (smal neg, small neg, large pos) would be 0 minus friction... equivalent to you sitting in a rolling office chair, moving your hands slowly foward, and bringing them back quickly, causing the chair to roll forward slightly. Nothing magical here either.
The troubling part is that they keep saying that the little car *accelerates* on it's own. I saw no acceleration in the video, only a large initial bump that sent it to the end of the table, or else several small bumps that sent it to the end of the table.. but it was slowing as it reached the end.
I'm also skeptical about the one physics guy and one outside testing facility that, according to the narrator "appears" to have confirmed the tests.
Not saying that it's a fraud, but I'd need to see alot more video of alot more tests under different conditions to be convinced. That video doesn't show a "reactionless" drive that accelerates on it's own, it shows reactional forces and slight slowing down as it moves. My opinion, without seeing anything else, is that it's just like one of those highly balanced wheels that almost appears to have OU... but it's just very efficient at conserving the initial energy imparted into the system.
The only way I can see this working as advertised is if the moving ball (or tube) is not connected in any way to the rest of the car, kind of free floating on air or something, so that it can move back without pushing against the car anywhere and only impact the car when it hits the end, but even then... when it moves forward it would have to push against something to do so