1970s documentary: competition to explain perpetual motion wheel?
May 31, 2022 4:51 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for a particular documentary about a competition between two groups of students who were tasked with determining what was the mechanism behind an apparently perpetually spinning wheel. It has completely evaded my Google-Fu, which makes me think that some of my memories must be faulty. Here are the faulty memories:
• The documentary was on PBS (or at least had a PBS feel).
• The students were from UC Berkeley and MIT (but maybe not?).
• The students had two sessions with the wheel. An observation session and a measurement session.
• What made the strongest impression on my is that the students from "Berkeley" used everyday objects (cigarette smoke, compass needle) for their measurements, while the "MIT" students used fancier equipment.
• The perpetually spinning wheel was constructed by a single physicist/inventor and was specifically designed to be difficult to figure out.
Anyone else remember this and can point me in the right direction?
• The documentary was on PBS (or at least had a PBS feel).
• The students were from UC Berkeley and MIT (but maybe not?).
• The students had two sessions with the wheel. An observation session and a measurement session.
• What made the strongest impression on my is that the students from "Berkeley" used everyday objects (cigarette smoke, compass needle) for their measurements, while the "MIT" students used fancier equipment.
• The perpetually spinning wheel was constructed by a single physicist/inventor and was specifically designed to be difficult to figure out.
Anyone else remember this and can point me in the right direction?
Could the perpetual spinning wheel have been a Stirling engine?
posted by KneeHiSocks at 7:06 AM on May 31, 2022
posted by KneeHiSocks at 7:06 AM on May 31, 2022
Too early to be Steorn.
Like tardigrade, I do remember something like this around the time of The Great Egg Race
posted by scruss at 11:51 AM on May 31, 2022
Like tardigrade, I do remember something like this around the time of The Great Egg Race
posted by scruss at 11:51 AM on May 31, 2022
Think I've found it: the late David E. H. Jones (aka New Scientist's Daedalus) made many joke perpetual motion machines under the DREADCO brand, but one of them still perplexes reviewers. There's a short video clip here: The unsolved secret of David Jones' perpetual motion machine
posted by scruss at 1:47 PM on May 31, 2022
posted by scruss at 1:47 PM on May 31, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks all for your answers. While we didn't find the specific thing I was looking for, I think we had two successes: (1) I am almost certain David E. H. Jones is the one who made the perpetual motion machine wheel for the challenge in the documentary that I watched; and, (2) I learned about The Great Egg Race, for which I am eternally grateful.
posted by Didymium at 6:15 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Didymium at 6:15 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by tardigrade at 5:50 AM on May 31, 2022