"LISA! In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"
Turn a turbine generator on it's side and then run a hundred of them the same way down the length of the shaft. Then do the same for the other three sides of the shaft.
Start pouring water down the sides of the shaft and gravity does the rest. It doesn't take as much energy to pump the water back up as it generates going down because instead of passing just one turbine the same water passes hundreds of them generating enough to pump the water back up and they sell off the rest. Keep in mind these are not massive turbines that you'd see in a dam.
It's not perpetual motion because you do have to use energy to run the pump. Without the pump the water stops and so does the power. On top of it there is routine maintenance that needs to be done.
You're saying that you generate more energy than you expend by pumping the water back to the top. That would mean every multistory apartment building would have a water tower with one of these generators to power the apartments and we would have endless energy. No, there is something missing here. Anyone else care to comment on this?
Proof positive Americans are failing in science.
It doesn't matter how many turbines it hits - a drop of water will only produce an amount of energy directly proportional to the height it falls. To get it back to its original height, you have to put the same amount of energy back into it. Because machines aren't 100% efficient, you have to spend more energy pumping it back up than you would ever get from the turbines.
What you describe is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY IMPOSSIBLE.
FYI, a perpetual motion machine would never need a net input of energy to keep running. What you're claiming is that it produces more energy than it takes to run, which makes it even more physically impossible than a perpetual motion machine. Unless you are converting some of the mass of water to energy via fission/fusion or some process like that...
"It doesn't take as much energy to pump the water back up as it generates going down because instead of passing just one turbine the same water passes hundreds of them generating enough to pump the water back up and they sell off the rest."
C'mon, now, think about what you're saying. In falling over a given distance, there is only so much potential energy in the water. In falling that potential energy is converted to kinetic energy (ie velocity), which is then converted into electricity by a turbine. One turbine or a hundred on the way down, there is only a fixed total amount of energy that can be extracted in the form of mechanical motion (with losses) and then into electricity (with more losses). The total amount of electricity generated will ALWAYS be less than the original potential energy of the water, and that original potential energy is the minimum (assuming no losses, which is impossible) that would be necessary to restore that water to the top of the shaft.
The laws of thermodynamics are immutable and no clever device or system can get around that. You've either misunderstood what they're doing down there, or they're selling snake oil.
Doesn't work. Each turbine is lower than the one before it. So every turbine that gets spun also represents more distance you have to pump the water back up.
Assuming a 100% efficient water lifting system, call the amount of energy it takes to raise one kilogram of water by 1 meter, E(1). That is also the maximum amount of energy that could be extracted by letting the same water fall back down that 1 meter. The reason they are the same is that potential gravitational energy stored in the kilogram of water as a result of raising it one meter is the amount of energy released when you let it fall.
Now, start with that water above a single turbine (and say each of your turbines only needs to have the water fall 1 meter to run the turbine). The turbine cannot produce E(1) of energy because the turbine is not 100% efficient. But to transport the water back up takes the full E(1) of energy (actually, it takes more as real pumps aren't 100% efficient). You lose net power every time you pump the water back uphill.
Ganging the turbines together doesn't help. Each turbine uses up the potential energy in the water that passes thru it that is represented by raising the water the height of the turbine. That is, the only turbines that can use the water already used by another turbine are below that other turbine.
It's not perpetual motion because you do have to use energy to run the pump.
It is if the total energy to run the pumps (regardless of source) is less than the total energy generated by the turbines.
It's a lot like Zimara's self-blowing windmill (designed in 1518) that ran a set of bellows. The bellows then blew the windmill sails round.
Do you have a url for this magical system? It sounds like it needs a boost from Teddy Kennedy's magic reality altering wand :)
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