This delightful and educational site offers quite a variety of proposals for perpetual motion, many of them patented, running the gamut from unbalanced wheels to accelerated charges to magnetic and gravitational shields to capillary action. Nearly all are debunked (only a few are left to the reader to understand), and the explanations all use introductory physics so they are widely accessible. Although these designs rely on tricks like frictionless seals and bearings and viscosity-free liquids, their flaws are invariably fundamental.

The site also presents a few historical figures in the search for perpetual motion, as well as a late nineteenth-century charlatan who persuaded US venture capitalists of the time to invest a million dollars in his device, which he demonstrated. In addition, the site presents a nice variety of optical illusions, most showing impossible structures. Text is provided in Portuguese as well as English.

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%0 Electronic Source %A Simanek, Donald %D 2002 %T The Museum of Unworkable Devices %V 2025 %N 20 April 2025 %9 image/gif %U https://lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/museum/unwork.htm

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