Cannot discern what trick is being used...

[Externet]

Would anyone please help find where is the trick that makes it appear to work ?

 

----->http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=RkLfpXpO5sQ

[D H]

Four tricks.

 

#1. Something he didn't do, which is to try to extract energy from the device. If he did that the wheel would soon come to a stop.

 

#2. Something else he didn't do, which is to show the wheel running for more than a few seconds. If he did that the wheel would once again soon come to a stop.

 

#3, Something he did but didn't show, starting at about 1:05. Where is his left hand? It's offscreen and is giving the wheel a spin. This is an out-and-out cheat.

 

#4, Something he did and did show, starting at about 1:30. He slowly pulls the magnet back to get the ball to lift and get the wheel spinning. Then he pulls the magnet back a little more to get the wheel rotating a bit faster. Still a cheat. He's adding a tiny bit of energy to the system.

 

 

Eventually the tiny bit of energy that he did put into the system will dissipate (trick #2), and there is no way to extract more energy out of the device than the tiny bit he put into it (trick #1).

[Joatmon]

This is almost certainly a hoax because the "machine" is so simple that it can easily be produced by others - and others are not clamouring to confirm that they have made similar "machines".

I notice a few facts which may be pointers to a possible way this trick could be performed.

 

The board to which the wheel is attached is positioned very carefully after being rotated.

The ball oscillates up and down before the wheel starts rotating which suggests it may be under the influence of an additional (alternating) magnetic field.

We never see under the table or how thick the table is.

The wheel seems to be made of aluminium.

 

I think what lies under the table may be the coils of a linear induction motor together with the electronics to control a travelling magnetic field and a battery to provide the power.

If you placed a sheet of aluminium above such an assembly it would move due to the interaction of fields generated in it by eddy currents with the travelling field supplied by the hidden coils. By the same principle the rim of the aluminium wheel would be pushed in one direction and thus be forced to rotate on the spindle.

 

So what about the ball bearing and the magnet? They may be just a diversion giving you some idea that this device works by magnetism provided by the bar magnet. Additionally the magnet holder may be used to operate a hidden switch (magnetic micro-switch for example).

 

Of course any conjuring trick may have many possible ways of being done - but I think this idea is really quite possible.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Joatmon