Interactive Simulation
Pulse interval in 0.5 s steps. Runs indefinitely until Stop/Reset. Dual battery with storage split %.
Optimizer
Best settings applied to controls. Storage optimize favors solar input, harvest, and low pulse drain — not free energy.
Notes
System runs indefinitely until you press Stop or Reset. Timed pulses fire every N seconds (0.5 s steps).
Scientifically accurate accounting:
- Solar is external energy input (the only net source while running).
- Kinetic recovered is electrical energy taken from the pendulum’s mechanical energy via induction (Faraday). By Lenz’s law this increases damping — the swing loses energy faster.
- Permanent-magnet forces are conservative: the arc does not supply continuous net energy.
- Initial release energy is gravitational potential; after that, sustained amplitude requires solar (or another external input).
- Overflow bank stores surplus in sim watt-seconds with no cap for long-run experiments; it is not free energy.
- 24h sustain: Solar charges only during simulated day. At night the pendulum and optional load run from stored battery energy charged by day. Size solar rate, day length, and night load so day gain ≥ night use.
Science of the experiment
This tab states the question, hypotheses, variables, procedure, energy bookkeeping, and what a result may or may not mean. The Simulation tab is the apparatus. Follow the steps in order so the trial is a test, not a demonstration dressed as proof.
1. Question
The question is about accounting, not about inventing a new force. Permanent magnets, gravity, air, the pivot, and Faraday induction are already in the standard inventory of physics.
2. Observation (what the apparatus is)
A rigid or flexible arm hangs from a low-friction pivot. The bob is an N-pole facing a curved row of N-facing magnets. Optional copper coil and kinetic harvest convert motion into a simulated charge increment. Optional solar input is the only source allowed to add net energy after release. Pulses spend stored charge to kick angular velocity.
- Gravity supplies the restoring torque: τg = −(mgℓ) sin θ (here encoded as −g/L sin θ).
- Magnet–magnet forces on a closed path in a static field are conservative: work around a full swing nets to zero aside from dissipation.
- Any coil or harvester obeys Lenz’s law: induced current opposes the change in flux, which appears as extra damping.
3. Hypotheses (must be falsifiable)
- H0 (null): With magnets only and no external input after release, amplitude decays to rest. Stored electrical energy cannot grow without solar or an equivalent external source.
- H1 (shaping): Magnet geometry can change instantaneous torque and the shape of the swing, but cannot raise mechanical energy above the release potential plus later external inputs.
- H2 (harvest cost): Enabling copper or kinetic harvest increases recorded “kinetic recovered” and shortens free-decay time by the same energy that was removed from the motion.
- H3 (sustain): Timed or phase-locked pulses can hold amplitude only while the battery has charge that originated as solar (or the initial gravitational release, once).
- H4 (storage): Net battery gain over a long run requires day-side solar charge ≥ pulse cost + night load + harvest-related extra damping losses.
If H0 fails under Zero Mags + vacuum + no solar + no harvest, the model is broken. If H0 holds with magnets on and fails only when solar is on, the magnets are not the energy source.
4. Variables
| Type | Quantity | How you change or read it |
|---|---|---|
| Independent | Release angle, gap, shift, magnet strengths, pivot, material, vacuum, solar, copper, kinetic, pulse mode / interval / strength, storage split, day length, night load | Controls on the Simulation tab |
| Dependent | Angle θ(t), amplitude %, half-swings, primary/secondary %, overflow W·s, solar-in, kinetic recovered | Live readouts |
| Controlled | Time step (1/60 s), g/L, magnet count (7), conservative-field rule, Lenz damping when harvest is on | Fixed in the model |
Change one family of variables per trial when you want a clean comparison (e.g. magnets only vs magnets + harvest vs magnets + solar pulses).
5. Procedure (scientific method on this page)
- Define the trial. Write the hypothesis number you are testing and which sliders stay fixed.
- Record the initial state. Release angle, gap, shift, magnet vector, pivot, vacuum, harvest flags, pulse mode, interval, split.
- Control run. Press Zero Mags, disable solar and harvest, Release, Stop after a chosen time. Note decay time and stored energy (should stay ~0).
- Treatment run. Restore one change (magnets, or harvest, or solar). Same release angle. Stop at the same time or at a stated amplitude.
- Replicate. Repeat the pair at least twice. Stochastic UI timing is small here; still treat a single run as anecdotal.
- Compare. Amplitude vs time, pulses spent, solar-in vs kinetic recovered, P+S store. Kinetic recovered is not new energy.
- Conclude only what the comparison supports. Do not infer over-unity from overflow growth while solar-in is nonzero.
6. Energy bookkeeping (prediction)
So harvest that later returns as a pulse is a storage loop with loss, not a source. Overflow is the same units spilled from capped P/S banks; the bar is logarithmic for display, not a claim of unbounded free work.
| Channel | Sign in the ledger | If you omit it, you will misread the trial |
|---|---|---|
| Release height | + mechanical (once) | Looks like “the magnets started it” |
| Static magnets | 0 net over a cycle | Local kicks look like generation |
| Air, material, pivot | − mechanical | Vacuum “proves” magnets last forever |
| Copper / kinetic | + battery, − mechanical | Harvest looks like extra source |
| Solar charge | + battery (external) | The only allowed net input while running |
| Pulse kick | − battery, + mechanical | Motion looks self-sustaining |
| Night load | − battery | 24 h sustain looks easier than it is |
7. Planned comparisons
- Decay baseline: Optimize → Max free-decay time, harvest off, solar off. Measures dissipation + magnet shaping only.
- Harvest cost: Same geometry with copper and/or kinetic on. Expect shorter life and rising “kinetic recovered.”
- Hold cost: Min solar to hold amp. Expect pulses to track interval or phase; batteries fall unless solar is on.
- Storage emphasis: Max stored battery. Expect solar on, harvest on, longer interval or phase timing, overflow enabled. Check that solar-in ≥ apparent store.
8. Analysis rules
- Report time, cycles, final amplitude, pulse count, solar-in, kinetic recovered, P%, S%, overflow.
- Compute a crude balance: solar-in + initial PE proxy − pulses − night load should bound remaining store. Kinetic recovered must not be added as a second source.
- A longer hang time with magnets vs Zero Mags tests H1 (shaping / local potential), not creation of energy.
- If store grows with solar off and harvest on, the model is converting initial mechanical energy; stop and check whether amplitude fell by a matching amount.
9. Conclusions that are allowed
After the control and treatment runs you may accept, reject, or leave open each Hi. You may say the geometry is a useful potential shaper, that induction is a damped generator, and that solar-sized storage can cover night load in the simulation. You may not say the arc is a prime mover.
10. Limitations (so the method stays honest)
- The integrator is a simple explicit step, not a symplectic laboratory integrator. Large angles clip at ±1.42 rad.
- Magnet torque is a compact phenomenological function, not a full dipole-field integral.
- Battery percent and W·s are simulation units with fixed scale factors, not calibrated coulomb-meters.
- Day/night compresses 24 h into ~120 s of animation so a human can finish a trial.
- Optimizer search is a coarse grid, not a global physical optimum.
Those limits bound the claim: this page is a thought-experiment with an explicit ledger. Ave Maria.