@STL

I have looked at your design for a few days now and there seems to be something you are taking for granted here that will inevitably make this design fail.

For the swing to happen from the 3 to 12 position, the swing has to move faster then the rotation of the wheel, so it does not only have to overcome the weight of the swing but also the counter force of the wheel turning counter clockwise.

If the elastic has to be week enough to bend at the 5 position and strong enough to retract at the 3 to 12 position, this in itself will not help overcome the rotation required to lift it at the 3 to 12 position.

I think one way to help overcome this is to connect each swing to their immediate opposites. So that the swing bending at the 5 position also helps lift the swing rising at the 3 to 12 position, or at least to help enough to take off some of the weight and use that bending energy to some helpfull use.

In any case, you have to be carefull because there is a very large world between the animation and the reality and being able to see the difference from the inventors perspective is usualy very difficult. From a scale of 1 to 10 on plausible success, I would give this a 7 so not bad.

Sorry to say, it stops (no air drag).

Here is the wm2d model with 7 arms. The springs are circular springs joints. You have a generic control for the springs K factor to change to tune up the system.
I have put a latch system that activates when the system try to go clockwise.

Mandatory screenshot and model.

xnonix

I've tryed a serie of smaller balls joined by ropes... like a chain of small balls... it works but the program seems to be extremally slow.

Now, about the air resistance... well... if we find a working model, we can construct a vaccum plexiglass chamber isn't it?

Sure!  here:  http://pabo.com.pa/joe/chain.wm2d

The force used to stretch the cloth would normally cancel out, but stretching the cloth over the fulcrum during "peak strength" and then waiting a number of degrees of rotation before releasing that pent up energy, splits the cloth into 2 springs effectively, seperated at the fulcrum. Top weight continues to act as we imagine a simple weight to do, but bottom cloth is a storage spring, its pull force is being held tightly between its mounting position, and the fulcrum. This energy will not be released until top cloth reaches or passes equilibrium relative to the weight. Once the cloth overcomes friction at the fulcrum, it returns to the behavior of a simple spring, and pulls with full force (top + bottom cloth) on the weight, and at the angle it is connected, that pulling force snaps the weight back into position, on its way back to its starting length.

You will notice the wheel is rotating extremely slowly.....centrifugal force is minimal. This is not a generator design, just a proof of concept.

One side of the weight must be held tight at "full extension" by a rope, the other side of the weight must be held by an elastic string. When constructed properly, it should look like a ninja throwing star, or a snowflake.

Scorpile, try this please. Hinge the weights at center instead of off to one side. Remove the rope on the elastic side. Change the static length of the elastic string until tension is present in the system at "starting" position. Adjust mass of weights, and elasticity of string, until perpetual motion is achieved.   


my design, and a recreation of dr tseungs suggested experiment, both in working model, both caused simulation errors when "I Believe" the effect that is causing "overunity" is seen as an error by WM.


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/murdock2id/workingmodelunhappy.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/murdock2id/workingmodelunhappy2.jpg

Here is my design in working model. I cannot make working model simulate the elasticity of string unless you introduce slack to the system, which is not a functional compromise for me.

Yes the elasticity is already set for the string pieces, but working model will not let you run the simulation that way. (download the model and try it yourself).