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From: guy@slu70.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.misc
Subject: Re: "Free Energy Machine"
Message-ID: <172@slu70.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Mar-86 13:39:22 EST
Article-I.D.: slu70.172
Posted: Wed Mar 12 13:39:22 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 02:14:10 EST
References: <326@inuxm.UUCP> <702@osiris.UUCP> <1438@mhuxt.UUCP>
Organization: Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 19
Xref: watmath net.physics:3931 net.misc:9374
Summary: geomagnetic field

In article <1438@mhuxt.UUCP>, js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) writes:
>     I know how to make one of those too!  Just put a loop of wire in a box
> oriented north and south.  Hang a wattmeter and a resistive load on the 
> terminals of the loop outside of the box.  Wait a few hundred thousand
> years for the magnetic field of the earth to flip again.  Notice the
> small impulse of energy that came out of the box when the field flipped.
> See?  FREE ENERGY extracted from 'natural earth energies'.  
Actually, you don't even need to wait for the field to reverse. Much less
dramatic variations in the field are taking place constantly on a time
scale ranging from less than seconds to thousands of years. This is what
magnetic storms are all about (strictly speaking, solar energy). Not that
you can extract any significant amount of energy that way. You normally
have to expend more energy to amplify the signal than you collect. As a side
note, the 'flip' of the magnetic field actually takes several thousand years.
We could be undergoing one now but we'll never know.

                                                 Guy M. Smith
                                                 (your friendly
                                                  local paleomagnetist)