frankthompson

When you spin the wheel counter-clockwise, each magnet on the wheel should go past a magnet with bismuth around it. When the wheel magnet is past the other magnet, the positive sides of the magnets will be able to "see" each other clearly and will repel.

We had this exact problem as a Problem of the Week in 8th grade math. Many people have repeated what I'm about to say, but I'll try to clarify. On your first guess, you have 3 choices: door 1, 2, or 3. You have an equal probability of picking each door, so the chances of getting the car on your first guess are 1/3. On your second guess, you are given the option to switch or stay. If you originally picked the car, you should stay. If you originally picked a goat, you should switch. Since there is a 1/3 chance that you originally picked the car and a 2/3 chance that you originally picked a goat, the probabiliy of winning the car is greater if you switch.

I had another perpetual motion idea, and this time I made a 5 minute website about it. http://www.freewebs.com/frankthompson Could somebody please tell me why this won't work?

I got the idea for this from just building my own puzzles using those levitation things. I got the idea that I might be able to do that in real life with magnets, so I decided to try. I'll try to whip up a paint document later because I've gotta leave in about 5 minutes. Edit: My dad just told me that the magnet wouldn't roll down to the second magnet that should repel it upwards because of the magnetic force, so the magnet would get stuck halfway down the second ramp. Is this true?

I have an idea for a perpetual motion machine. I know that perpetual motion is impossible, but I want to know why this won't work. Here's my idea, I'm sorry if it's been done before. I got it from playing "The Incredible Machine" First, you've got a ramp. There is a hollow magnetic cylinder at the top with the positive charge facing outwards and the negative charge in. The magnet reaches the bottom of the ramp and hits another ramp, going in the opposite direction. There is a magnet at the end of the second ramp that has the positive side facing up. This repels the magnet up to the top of the ramp where it starts over again. Here is my feeble attemp at ASCII art of my idea: ..../ ../ /.....O l....l\............l l....l..\..........l l....l....\........l l....l......\......l l....l........\....l l....l..........\..l l....l...........l..l l....l..............l l....l............./ l....l.........../ l....l........./ l....l......./ l....l...../ l....l.../ l___./ (+) Edit: I put spaces in my diagram instead of periods. D'oh! I'm sorry if this is a little hard to understand. I took enrichment science during my second semester of 7th grade and our teacher asked us to come up with a project with magnets.