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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.misc,net.research
Subject: Re: Joseph Newman's Energy Machine
Message-ID: <2756@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Oct-85 02:03:07 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.2756
Posted: Fri Oct 25 02:03:07 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Oct-85 01:31:18 EST
References: <173@tulane.UUCP> <71@oce-rd2.UUCP>
Reply-To: edhall@rand-unix.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 71
Xref: watmath net.physics:3448 net.misc:8786 net.research:303
Summary: 

In article <71@oce-rd2.UUCP> hmd@oce-rd2.UUCP (Hubert van Dongen) writes:
>Did anyone happen to measure both voltage and size of both ingoing and
>outcoming currents?
>
>As most people will know P=V*I (power is voltage times current), sothat
>this would be the most elementary test one can imagine to test this
>perpetuum mobile.
>
>
>	Hubert van Dongen
>	Oce-Nederland B.V.
>	{seismo,decvax,ucbvax,philabs}mcvax!oce-rd1!hmd

Wow!  All the E.E.'s on the net and no one has figured this one out?
I guess that E.E.'s aren't, in general, very familiar with AC
electric motors (I know, old technology).

As a matter of fact, Mr. van Dongen has stated precisely the method
Newman uses to ``prove'' his machine's capabilities.  Newman uses
electrical voltage and current meters on his machine's input and
output as a ``scientific'' measure of the ``power'' produced.

Well, the above formula is quite correct for DC or for AC when there
is no reactance in the circuit.  But in a reactive circuit there is
something called ``power factor'', such that the correct formula is
P=V*I/pf, where pf >= 1.  As a simple example, consider an AC current
driving into a capacitor.  You'll be able to measure both current and
voltage in the curcuit, but assuming an ideal capacitor you'll find
that NO POWER WHATEVER is being consumed.  What the capacitor takes
from the power source while the voltage potential is increasing, it
gives back on the next quarter-cycle when the voltage is decreasing.
Current flows (in both directions!), but the power factor is infinite.

Many AC electric motors, especially when lightly loaded, behave in
exactly the same way.  They can have a power factor of more than 10,
such that a simple measure of voltage and current in the circuit can
yield ``power'' measures of more than ten times what the current
source is actually producing.  The motor is performing energy-storage
just like the capacitor, acting as a generator for part of the AC
cycle.

What Joseph Newman's machine probably is is really nothing more than
an unloaded electric motor, driven by a DC-to-AC converter.  He
measures the (DC!) voltage and current feeding the device from the
batteries, calculates a (true) power input, then measures the (AC!)
output, neglecting the power factor and thus coming up with a much
larger (false) number.  Connecting resistive loads across his device
will lower the power factor, but never eliminate it.  Fluorescent or
neon tubes will light on a small fraction of their rated power (though
not at full brilliance), and because of their nonlinear conductance
would have less of an effect on the power factor than incandescent
bulbs.  They *look* impressive, but they derive their power solely
from the batteries--as does his ``machine''.

[The above information was gathered in part from an article in ``The
Laser'', newsletter of the Southern California Skeptics, who actually
sent an electrical engineer to observe the device after they were
contacted by a group of investors about to invest several million
dollars to its development.  Newman kept the engineer from observing
the device too closely when he discovered who he was, but since the
apparatus was pretty simple--batteries, a ``box'', and the
``machine''--the engineer was able to deduce the above explanation.
The investors saved their money.  BTW, Southern California Skeptics
(SCS) is the regional chapter of The Committee for Scientific
Investigation Of the Paranormal (CSIOP).]

Note that Newman may well be completely sincere, misguided solely
by his ignorance of AC electricity.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall