People have been pursuing a machine that can give an initial momentum and then keep moving, which people call perpetual motion machines. Countless people have tried on this perpetual motion machine, trying to create the first perpetual motion machine, which is famous in history. However, people put in a lot of mental and physical effort, and finally did not get a perpetual motion machine, but instead summed up a law - conservation of energy.
Schematic diagram of conservation of energy
With this law, perpetual motion machines basically say goodbye, and whoever preaches perpetual motion machines is a liar. But some people disagree, since conservation of energy says that there can be no perpetual motion, how to explain the rotation of the earth? The Earth has been spinning for 4.6 billion years and shows no sign of stopping, which is impossible according to the conservation of energy.
It was only then that two groups of people had been supporting and refuting perpetual motion machines for all these years, but neither of them found that our planet had been tirelessly spinning itself for 4.6 billion years. So where does its energy come from? Will it be the perpetual motion machine we are looking for?
The rotation of the Earth
We all know that the Earth orbits the Sun, the cycle is 365 days a year, and the energy of the Earth's rotation comes from the Sun's gravitational pull. But what happens to the rotation of the earth? Not only the Earth, but also the eight planets of the solar system rotate at the same time as they rotate. What is the force that makes the planet spin?
Eight planets orbit the Sun
To uncover the secrets of the rotation of the Earth and all the planets, you need to travel back in time to the time when the solar system first formed 4.6 billion years ago. The Solar System formed in a nebulae that came from a supernova explosion in the later years of the previous star. In the process of forming the Sun, some of the larger nebula fragments began to gather around the Sun's tender gravitational pull, which was the original solar system. As the central material gradually tightened, the juvenile sun formed, and the first eight planets were born.
The process of sun formation
However, at this time, the solar system was chaotic, the gravitational attraction of the stars was disordered, the fragments flew around in this chaotic system, and the gravitational pull of the early Earth attracted them, so these fragments crashed into the Earth. Early Earth experienced numerous impacts, even by an asteroid the size of Mars. These impacts provided enormous angular momentum to the Earth, which had not yet rotated at the time, and after accumulating to a certain value, the Earth began to rotate.
Planets in the solar system and even the entire universe rotate almost universally for this reason. According to estimates, the Earth's rotation is almost the same as the time it was born, which means that the Earth has been rotating for 4.6 billion years. The earth rotates with the initial angular momentum, but it has not stopped, is this not the perpetual motion machine we are looking for?
Perpetual motion machines
The history of perpetual motion machines is long, as early as 1200 BC in ancient India, someone conceived of a device that never stopped moving, and later this idea was introduced to the Arab region along with the numbers, and then into Europe through the hands of the Arabs. The earliest perpetual motion machine devices took shape in the 13th century, the disc perpetual motion machine envisioned by the Frenchman Hennecao.
This perpetual motion machine has a wheel-like crossbar with a ball attached to it, and when rotated, the torque on the right side will be greater than the torque on the left. Give it an initial momentum, and the disk will rotate in the direction of the initial force and never stop.
This idea inspired many people to try, but never achieved perpetual motion. Usually, the disc stops after a few weeks of rotation. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci also tried to make a perpetual motion machine, which reproduced a device according to this idea, but still failed.
Subsequently, engineers from various countries improved the device, such as Steel in Italy, who tried to use water flow to drive perpetual motion machines. He designed a structure similar to a Chinese water wheel, hoping to use the first wisp of water to drive the device to rotate, and each turn would bring the water from the sink below to the top and continue to fall. However, its device did not move for long, and the water transported became less and less, and it could not reach the very top at all, and eventually failed.
"Water flow" perpetual motion machine
This group of european mechanical engineers tossed on this perpetual motion machine for hundreds of years, until the laws of thermodynamics were born, and people realized that perpetual motion machines could not be realized. Historically, there are two kinds of perpetual motion machines that people have been tinkering with, the first of which attempts to use mechanical means to operate without energy injection. This violates the first law of thermodynamics, the law of conservation of energy. Objects are subject to air resistance, so in the absence of external energy supply, the initial energy obtained by this device is quickly converted into the energy consumed by air resistance.
One of the "perpetual motion machines" made by humans
The second type of perpetual motion machine is to try to convert all its external energy into mechanical energy while ensuring the conservation of energy. This perpetual motion machine will not exist, because it is not enough to satisfy the first law, but also to satisfy the second law of thermodynamics, that is, the law of entropy increase, and any system has a spontaneous super-entropy increase in the direction of development, that is, the energy can not be 100% transmitted, and eventually there is a time when it is consumed.
After about 300 years of failure, humanity accepted that perpetual motion machines did not exist, and that their bamboo baskets were empty.
Slows down the rotation
But there are still people who are not dead-hearted, they believe that perpetual motion machines do not exist on the earth, but they definitely exist in the universe, after all, the universe is more complex than we believe, and many things on the earth that can be explained by scientific theories are not necessarily true in the universe. Obviously, the perpetual motion machine in the universe is far away in the sky, and it is close at hand, which is the earth.
However, after astronomers' observations, the Earth has not maintained a speed rotation for 4.6 billion years, and its speed is gradually slowing down. For example, the rotation speed of the earth at the beginning of its birth was still 6 hours in a circle, and now the speed of rotation is about 24 hours. The Earth's rotation period increases by an average of 1 second per 35,000 years. Why there is a slow self-transformation situation, it is reasonable to say that the universe is a vacuum, there is no air resistance, the earth can completely rely on the initial angular momentum, to achieve eternal rotation.
However, do not forget that the Earth is not a single individual, it is always in various systems, such as it and its own natural satellite Moon. There is a tidal lock between the Moon and the Earth, so the resulting tides create friction that slows down the Earth's rotation. In addition, the Earth itself adjusts its rotation speed due to seasonal reasons, which may be related to the surface ocean currents.
Tidal locking of the Moon with the Earth
Artificial satellites launched by humans will also consume the Rotational Energy of the Earth. Some satellites are very close to the earth, just close to the atmosphere, at this time, the two sides will cause a certain amount of friction, slowing down the earth's rotation cycle. Although the universe is a vacuum, it does not mean that there is no matter that consumes energy within it.
Never stop
The reason why we feel that the Earth is perpetually moving is because this angular momentum is so large that it can support the Rotation of the Earth for up to 4.6 billion years, and it will continue in the future. But in fact, this initial angular momentum will eventually be depleted one day, at which time the rotation of the earth may stop.
Angular momentum is also present in the Earth-Moon system
4.6 billion years is a long time for human beings, but for a star like Earth, it is not worth mentioning at all. From the earth's point of view, the earth does not move at all, and it slows down because other matter consumes angular momentum, still in line with the first law of thermodynamics, energy conservation. In fact, not only the Earth, but also other planets. There is no absolute eternity in the universe, and all matter will change, but this change cycle is too long, and the short history of mankind is difficult to encounter.
The Sun is a star, but don't assume that it doesn't revolve around other stars, and that the Sun is also orbiting the Milky Way. The Milky Way is not stationary, it also moves around the stars, and as for what it is around, human beings have not yet reached a conclusion. Theoretically, any celestial body is moving around, and there is a force at the center of the universe that is now unknown to mankind, driving the entire universe.
The sun on which we live will not nourish the earth forever. Indeed, it has been burning steadily for 4.5 billion years, and depending on the life of the star, the sun will burn for another 5 billion years, during which time the size of the sun will become larger. It may not be hundreds of millions of years, when the radius of the Sun expands to the size of the radius of the Earth's orbit with the Sun, the Earth is likely to be swallowed up by the Sun.
There is no eternity in the universe, so there is no perpetual motion machine, on the contrary, it is more interpreted, there will be a day when energy will be exhausted, whether on earth or in the universe, perpetual motion machine can never exist.
The end of the earth
If the earth consumes the rotational angular momentum, the earth will stop rotating, at this time, the earth will no longer have the so-called day and night, the side facing the sun will have a high temperature, and the side facing the sun will become a new polar. If human beings still exist at that time, they will live near the earth's morning and evening line, and the whole earth can no longer be called the cradle of life, on the contrary, it will become the hell of life.
The earth also has a lifespan, and its lifespan is closely related to the sun. The lifespan of a star is related to its size, because its lifespan starts at 100 million years, and it is impossible for humans to continuously observe a star for hundreds of millions of years. Therefore, human beings have connected the stars observed at various stages in the universe to summarize the life trajectory map of the sun. At this time, the Sun is still in its prime, becoming a main sequence star, and its surface has enough hydrogen to undergo nuclear fusion reactions to ensure energy output.
Nuclear fusion reactions
But after the sun consumes its own hydrogen, it will expand and become a red giant, and finally because of the excessive density of the interior, it will collapse, it will explode, and finally only a white dwarf star will be left, no light, no temperature, like a tombstone, telling that there was once a star here. Earth may have ceased to exist long after the Sun ended its main sequence star expansion.
So, nothing is eternal, energy is not, and astral matter is not.
In search of eternal meaning
Although human attempts to create perpetual motion machines have failed, this should not be a disgrace for human beings to avoid talking about. Indeed, in the absence of a clear understanding of the world and the self, human beings have made many mistakes that now seem ridiculous.
For example, the ancients pursued immortality, but modern medicine shows that cellular aging is an irreversible process, essentially only to delay aging, there is no way to resist aging, and it is impossible to have immortality. Drinking the water of eternal life and eating elixirs are useless, but they will eat a lot of harmful substances and end their lives early.
Alchemy chart
For example, human beings hope to get perpetual motion machines and produce never sleep, but the final result is that even if they leave the earth and go to the universe, there is no perpetual motion machine, it seems that the earth has been rotating for 4.6 billion years, in fact, it is gradually slowing down, just like everyone's perpetual motion machine experiment. It is only because the time span of its deceleration is too long, and the time of human beings is too short, that it will have the illusion of its eternal rotation.
Of course, we modern people can stand on the commanding heights of science and technology to laugh at the ignorance of our predecessors, but we have neglected a little, if there is no "stupidity" of people in the first place, human beings will not realize that some ideas and theories are wrong. For example, the idea of perpetual motion machines existed in ancient India as early as 3,000 years ago, until the 13th century, people began to try, and soon found problems, so only a few hundred years later, people corrected the errors of perpetual motion machines, and also concluded the laws of thermodynamics.
Imagine if humans hadn't tried to make perpetual motion machines, and that mistake might have delayed change, and human technology would have been some time later than it is now. Thanks to the human beings who once were, in a way, their contributions are eternal for humanity, because they will be remembered forever by history.