Water power and perpetual motion

Someone at work sent around this link. He asked if it was “for real?”

Man, I was so tempted when I saw the Fox News link to engage in ad hominem. But let’s look at it.

Trust the laws of Physics

First start with the laws of physics. The Third Law of Thermodynamics says that there is no energy for free so he’s probably a whole lot of energy into that water. That’s the hum of a generator I hear in the background?

The guy isn’t claiming it’s a perpetual motion machine, but he’s implying it. A lot of people don’t know this but a lot of multinational corporations fund perpetual motion machine research on the the off chance, “What if they’re correct?” This program reminds me a lot of those machines (usually involving incredibly big magnets some place in the south of the United States…why always that part of the country?). A lot of patents are awarded every year that are all basically perpetual motion machines.

This shit happens all the time, if it isn’t polywater of the 60’s, it’s cold fusion of the 90’s. People, even scientists, can be guilty of magical thinking.

Probably peroxide

Assuming the water is actually doing something here, if I had to guess, it looks like standard electrolysis. That’s what happens when you run electricity through water. But H₂ and O₂ are flammable.

Remembering my first year chemistry, there is no such thing chemically as “HHO” as claimed in the program. So given the “water torch,” I’m betting my money it’s hydrogen peroxide. Any metal is going to act like a catalyst with peroxide and burn so I’d put my money that the reaction actually 2 H₂O + 1 O₂ + energy -> 2 H₂O₂. The test would be to find out if he has an oxygen tank in his contraption.

Anyone want to take that bet?

(I also question its usefulness as a torch/welder. I mean other than satisfy our need to burning holes in things, is it practical? If so, why aren’t people using it? It’s not like hydrogen peroxide is uncommon.)

Verification wierdness

When I tried to verify my guesses I ran across that the term for this is “Brown’s Gas” or “Rhode’s Gas” (now called “Klein gas”, like the Dennis Klein guy in the news clip). Like other scientific hoaxes it seems to come out every decade so they can get a new bunch of suckers to buy this crap.

Do a search for these terms.

I did and ran across this Wikipedia entry. I was in shock after reading it. Sure, Wikipedia is all about Neutral point of view, but the “criticism” section is shit.

My respect for Wikipedia dropped a lot with that one.

I hope Slashdot doesn’t pick this up. It’s going to get ugly.