Is free energy a viable possibility?

[Ostronomos]

Consider that electron energy levels fill all the possible spaces of empty space. Now, suppose one were to boost an electron to positive energy by the right amount, could we create mass from energy and then use it to power difficult tasks? The second law of thermodynamics would obviously be violated would it not?

 

[Kooky]

As far as I can tell, market prices are not subject to the laws of physics, but to supply and demand.

 

[HonestJoe]

Now, suppose one were to boost an electron to positive energy by the right amount...

Not at all my field, but that sounds like something that would require energy to achieve, hence your output wouldn't be free.

In general, if there was a way to break the second law of thermodynamics that could be explained to two short sentences, I find it unlikely nobody would have considered it already.

 

[sayak83]

Consider that electron energy levels fill all the possible spaces of empty space. Now, suppose one were to boost an electron to positive energy by the right amount, could we create mass from energy and then use it to power difficult tasks? The second law of thermodynamics would obviously be violated would it not?

I did not understand what you were proposing

 

[Twilight Hue]

Look at Stanley Meyers water powered car.

People think he was wacked by the corporate elites.

They will never allow free energy to flourish.

 

[exchemist]

Look at Stanley Meyers water powered car.

People think he was wacked by the corporate elites.

They will never allow free energy to flourish.

I've just stumbled across this and it cries out for correction, so here goes:-.

Stanley Meyers was a fraud: Stanley Meyer's water fuel cell - Wikipedia . Anyone who understood thermodynamics or chemistry knew he was from the outset, but that didn't stop him fooling some gullible people into parting with their money.

There is no "they" that is suppressing free energy. Free energy is a bogus notion in the first place.

The idea of cars that run on water comes round every so often, once dim people have forgotten the last scam. There's a long (and rather amusing) list of these scams in this Wiki article: Water-fuelled car - Wikipedia. I think it must be because some people simply cannot resist the notion that "oil companies" [boo, hiss] would stand to lose if it were possible, ergo they must have colluded to suppress it.

The simple (and, one might have thought, obvious) truth is that the energy you need to split water into oxygen and hydrogen: 2H₂O -> 2H₂ + O₂ , is identical to the energy you get from burning the hydrogen to produce water again: 2H₂ + O₂ -> 2H₂O. It's just a question of breaking and forming the same chemical bonds, each of which has a fixed bond strength. (In practice it is worse than this because the water splitting process, electrolysis, is not 100% efficient, so not all the electrical energy you use goes into splitting the molecules.)

 

[pearl]

I think the concept of 'free' energy for the world has as much chance in reality as it did in the movie, 'Chain Reaction'.