The Overbalanced Wheel of Perpetual Motion
An attempt at making a perpetual motion machine.

Image via Wikipedia
The Overbalanced Wheel was thought to be a way to find perpetual motion for over a century. It was said that the metal balls would fall on the right side of the wheel and provide torque to continuously turn the wheel. Although this looks like a good idea, flaws exist. The main flaw is that there are actually more balls on the left side (8 out of the 12) of the wheel than on the right side (only 4 of the 12). It makes the left side of the wheel heavier than the right. Even though torque is provided on the right side, it is just not enough to overpower the weight of the balls on the left side of the wheel.
This is not the only version of the Overbalanced Wheel. There are many others that have been tried and failed because of similar reasons. Can you think of an idea that would work? (I can’t!)
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