Oi.  Here we go.

> > > That's pretty cool.  The actual energy to keep it moving
> > > comes from the magnet, right?
> >
> > No, the energy comes from the bump the person gives it.
>
>         Not so. Watch the video again. One time the motor is started at a
> high speed and shortly after it adjusts itself to a lower speed and
> maintains it. Another time it is started with a very gently push and
> accelerates.

A magnet CANNOT provide energy to a system.  ALL (repeat:
ALL) of the energy here comes from the bump the person starting
the system provides.  Every last erg (or joule, if you prefer) came from
that person's muscles.  All of it.  Period.  For it to be otherwise, we
would be observing a violation of the laws of thermodynamics.

There's a reason they aren't called "The Three Suggestions of
Thermodynamics".

The change in speeds is due to the system finding a stable
speed.  It's a feedback system, in oscillation- just like a poorly
designed op-amp circuit, it will find a comfortable speed of
oscillation and sit there.

>  How does a twisted pair of wires opened at one end charge a
> capacitor? I have tried that and got nothing.

It's pretty simple, actually.  The twisting provides a series of loops,
the magnet passes the loops, which causes a change in magnetic
flux through the area of each loop, which induces a current, which
flows into the capacitor.  That energy is released from the cap as
the magnet passes over the larger coil at the bottom.

Look, if this guy had actually invented an "over-unity" device (which
is more likely than a perpetual motion machine, in the sense that
the probably of a perpetual motion machine existing is something
like 2 to the infinity, minus 1, to 1 while over-unity machines are more
like 2 to the infinity, minus 2, to 1), no one would know, unless he kept
uncharacteristically good notes for a garage pseudoscience fan.
We wouldn't know because the machine would have rapidly and
catastrophically disassembled itself and probably taken him with
it, leaving no evidence of the design nor anyone to explain what
happened.

Mike H.
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist