How about this: a tidal generator. When I was a kid I thought tidal forces were an example of free energy, but later I found out that the Moon's orbit is slowly decaying as a result.

But then I learned that galaxies are moving away from one another, and the rate of motion is accelerating. 'Dark energy' is pushing them apart, and it's overcoming the pull of gravity. But it was stressed to me that dark energy only exerts a significant influence on galactic scales. While there is dark energy pushing the Moon away from the Earth, it's too small to be measurable.

So what if I get a planet and moon, and transport them far away from any interfering matter. Now we increase the moon's distance from the planet until the forces of dark energy are exactly enough to offset the moon's orbital decay. Whatever tiny tidal forces that exist on the planet are... free energy?

So is there an official card for being a crank scientist that I am now eligible to carry?

But seariously, it's important to realize that gravity is not a freebie one way deal; a ball pulls on the earth with exactly as much force as the earth pulls on the ball. Force= mass*acceleration. Since the ball is much less massive, it accelerates a whole helluva lot more than it accelerates the earth.

edit: "hell"'s okay here? I wanted an expletive spiral on "helluva".

Congratulations, you've just invented the... perpetuum bong?

do you understand now?

That was a bit of graphical wizardry to make sure any investors know that the cable is definetly a power cable.

BTW I am now accepting donations to make this fantastic dream a reality. The names of all donators will be engraved in the satelite casing for future generations to remember who the true pioneers were.

Can I have a go?

If that's a bet, I'm willing to take it!

Sarcasm can be conserved across posts.

Also, S comes after R, and the 'S' sig posted before the 'R' sig. What a coincidence! I'm dumb!

And you both watch TV!

Any thread you haven't posted in is legendary.

I'm not sure how much energy it would make, but as I read the post I came to the same conclusion as piccolo of having water on the right side that floats the balls back up. The only issue I see is now that the balls are back up top, how do you "push" them back over the edge to fall down again?

You would almost have to make sure the trip up is x high so that the balls are rising with so much force they "jump" out of the top and hit an angles piece to kick them to the left and fall again.

I guess keeping the water on the right side only would be an issue

I think if we just keep paying people to keep dropping heavy balls down we'll be fine. It gives more jobs and creates less pollution