The Perpetual Motion Paradox - Can It Be Solved?

Author's Note: For anyone in the know, this post is exclusively concerned with first-type perpetual motion machines. Look elsewhere if you're looking for second-type perpetual motion machines. For once, I'm not going to mention quantum theory or ground state energies.

Recently Bats wrote a script. (The secret's out! Attack the director-to-be!) Now, the script's rather unusual - a parody of every zombie apocalypse film you've ever seen, outside of 'Shaun of the Dead' - and, despite my having pointed out some gaping plot holes, the authors seem to think they have it all sorted. Which they don't. But moving on...

One of these plot holes becomes apparent when someone from the future hands some guns to the main characters. When asked how they're powered, the time traveller simply replies, "Uh... They run on perpetual motion." And when that is questioned, the character sidesteps the question. Highly convenient.

The truth is that perpetual motion is a paradox that, if you think about it, makes perfect sense until it's put into practice. Allow me to explain...

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Perpetual motion is, quite simply, a motion that, once put into action, will loop infinitely with no loss of energy. Anyone who can solve this problem would almost certainly be the next winner of the Nobel Prize. Why? Because an infinite supply of energy would solve the world energy crisis. But it's impossible to create a perpetual motion machine. Consider the following picture of Boyle's Self-Filling Flask:


Boyle's Self-Filling Flask, a famous perpetual motion attempt.

The idea is that the water from above pushes the water back up the tube to self-fill the flask, hence 'Self-Filling Flask'. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually work. This is because gravity works and tends to kill ideas. Objects try to find a rest state when they have some sort of force working on them, especially when  Plus, friction diminishes the force that the water carries as it travels around. This would lead to a complete energy loss, eventually. This machine could only ever work (and even then, only for a certain time - friction, you see) in a zero-gravity vacuum environment. Plus it would have to be an entirely enclosed affair. You need to cap that flask, otherwise it'll splash.

There's pretty much no way to make perpetual motion work, unless of course you found a portal gun and shot the ceiling and floor, then dropped something in it. Even then, that pobably requires some sort of energy source to keep the portals open. Perpetual motion machines aren't allowed to take in energy from the outside except for when they're created and started up. So that's why perpetual motion won't work.

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That should explain why sidestepping that question was a cowardly action. The plot hole is enormous, but small at the same time. perhaps it should be likened to a rabbit hole: It's small, but it goes deep. Plus, guns with pereptual motion? The axiom of zombie films is that there's limited ammo!

Well, Bats, I hope that that's a satisfactory explanation for why perpetual motion just doesn't work. Unless you've harnessed zero-point energy or tapped the energy of the false vacuum, I doubt that your 'perpetual motion' guns will ever take off.

Troll-lolol...

I like things to remain realistic in fictional works. Can you tell?