Perpetual Motion

Anyone who can create "perpetual motion" - that is, a machine which will run forever without external energy input - will be rich beyond his wildest dreams. Your assignment is not to create perpetual motion, since that's impossible, but to come as close as you can with the materials supplied.

Specifically, you must keep one of the silver disks in motion for as long as you possibly can. You may use any form of energy input you like to start your machine, and may use any energy stored in the machine at the moment it is started, so long as no additional energy is added from outside while it is running.

There is no restriction on how the disk must move, only that it moves.

There will be another team competing with you. The winning team will be the one whose disk is moving the longest. If the disks are moving independently, the time will run until the last disk has stopped. Materials List and Instructions

You will need the following materials:

 Large metal washer for each patrol (1-2” would be good)

 Whatever material you have on hand - thread, rubber bands, straws, tape, etc. I always had a big box of random stuff in the troop room for just this sort of thing

 Stopwatch

Setup:

 None

 Hand each patrol the instructions and a washer

 When patrol is ready, have them start washer moving

 Time until washer stops moving - how long can they keep the washer in motion?

 Patrol’s machine cannot use any external energy, only what’s in the machine when the washer is started.

 Any kind of motion counts - rolling, spinning, rocking back and forth… anything.