A skeptical look at the Hamel disk

This page is found at www.phact.org/e/z/hamel.htm

 

The following is a pretty good write up on Hamel's spinning disk from another list:

 

Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 17:51:51 -0000
   From: "yombalula <yombalula@yahoo.com>" <yombalula@yahoo.com>
Subject: 1111 spinning Ring Magnet explained

1111 spinning Ring Magnet explained

David Hamel, who claims to be building a space ship uses a pair of ring shaped magnets for a demo. The Bottom ceramic ring magnet is taken from a speaker and placed over a ball bearing. The Demo involves partially suspending the lower magnet with the magnetic attraction of the larger ring that is held in a the user's hand with the ball bearing still touching the table. To everybody's amazement, the lower ring begins to spin even though nobody is directly touching it.

This is Hamel's foremost demonstration, and is used to impress people with his "technology". I bet that this spinning of the ring magnet is what his thinks is perpetual motion. The Secret is in the ball bearing. It is doing a dance on the table because it is being dragged by your hand. Any motion off center and the ball bearing will spin -- after all it is round. The best surfaces would be a formica top, because it is non magnetic and hard.

If the Top ring is suspended by a bracket (held steady), the bottom ring will not move. But when you hold the top ring with your hand, you can't keep it still. When you are trying to balance it you keep on going in a circle and pumping up the bottom ring through the ball bearing. Some people have a knack for this and get it spinning real fast.

In short the demo is a hoax and the people that report this "phenomena" are naive.

Yomba

PS. Hamel's following is a religious cult. It is based on faith and not science. If you listen to Hamel or read the descriptions of his inventions you will find that the guy has no idea about physics and is nothing but a crackpot. I would not even let him change a spark plug.
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More information:

 

Watch out for psychotics

Just like religion, most of these schemes for generating "free energy" are based on three things.

1. Colossal ignorance. Most of the time these people do not know the difference between FORCE and ENERGY (WORK).  They could not possibly measure the useful output of these machines because they don't know how to measure it or even what to measure.

2. Active Psychosis. Hammil says he gets his ideas from aliens who are channeling directly to his brain. Many other claim that demonic forces are preventing them from achieving their goals.

3.Stupid followers with only half a brain. I guess this constitutes about 75% of humanity judging from the mess that they are getting us into. For instance Hamils followers are making models of his inventions despite the fact that they have not got a chance of working. When asked why they do this, their typical response is "Hammil believes in it therefore there must be something to it". I think that is the chief motivation of the Terrorists following hatemonger mullahs. Deliberate suspension of the higher functions.

Ali

 

for more reading of free energy scams check out the perpetual motion chapter of Jack Phins 'the 7 Follies of Science' - also the book 'Perpetual Motion: The History of an Obsession' and 'The Perpetual motion Mystery ' by John Collins and 'The Manual of Free Energy Devices and Systems' by D. A. Kelly.  I have tried to let all the latest free energy claimants know of my prize for proof

·back to Eric's main Dennis Lee page    what about Joe Newman? Also, Amin, Mills (who may be legit?) Tilley, Perendev, Bearden Lutec Paul Pantone and Enencom Moray Tewari  David Yurth  The Museum of Unworkable Devices  a great overview of them

·  INE Free Energy Devices Database -  - another great list of FE claims
Creator of this here page and his skeptic pages and crack pot pages
 Milt's discussion of Free Energy and Ceti
A excellent history of perpetual motion machines from an Australian skeptic

·  FAQs

·  My open prize money for a real free energy machine
back to my main page about Dennis Lee. -

·  how to become a Free Energy con man

·  what about 300 mpg carburetors?

·  Eric's discussion of real forms of free energy

·  A more believing history of free energy claims

·  Another good overview of Free energy claimants Crank Dot Net | free energy

·  Bob Schadewald claims to have invented a Perpetual motion machine - but will the big conspiracy stop him?

·  EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE!

·  . FREE ENERGY FAQ

·  For a totally different interpretation, check out this conspiracy believing history of free energy 'inventions' I think the writer of it doesn't understand that many fraud perpetrators claim they've been offered outrageous sums to hook investors and then disappear after being detected to avoid incarceration - which gets interpreted by believers as evidence of a conspiracy.


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Some warning signs of crackpot or fraudulent inventions (special thanks to Phil Karn):

 

1. Extreme obsession with secrecy

 

 

 

2. Inventor works alone, refuses technical help

 

                e.g., Madison Priest, Adam Clark

 

                sometimes, like-minded crackpots do join forces,

                 e.g, Walker and Feher

 

3. Invokes conspiracies to explain lack of progress

 

 

4. The claimed invention implies violations of firmly established

   mathematical or physical laws

 

 

-          walker claims Shannon is correct but "misunderstood"

 

5. Claims discovery of new physical theories, or comprehensive "theories

   of everything"

 

                or asserts existing, accepted theories are "wrong"

                all without proof

 

6. An unusually long gestation period without commercialization

 

 

 

7. Lack of formal education in relevant field

 

 

 

8. Pursuit of funding from unconventional sources

 

 

 

8. Repeated pattern of touting one design and then abandoning it in

   favor of a new one when critics show it cannot work                 ("bait and switch")

 

                e.g., Walker's VPSK, then VMSK, then MSB, etc, etc

 

9. Appeals to religion or "higher power"

 

                especially when seeking funding from religious people or groups we humans "deserve" this invention, etc.

 

10. Heavy marketing emphasis on wonderful applications of device,

                carefully avoiding question of whether the device actually works