I don't specifically remember being taught what overunity is in middle or high school. I learned about it on my own, around age 10 or so, on an online forum (newsgroup, actually). I was severely roasted after posting up an idea I had about a permanent magnet motor. Learned the hard way. I think I would remember having that lesson reaffirmed in my school curriculum. But I don't. I'm thinking now that maybe it just isn't taught. That would explain the excess of people in the world who believe in it.

So, were you taught it in school or not?

 

This is standard fare in any introductory Physics course known as the law of conservation of energy.

 

Everything I know I learned from TV ads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo

Really, just looking at the world with more than one brain cell tells you it's impossible. It's something that was taught in about the 3th grade when I was a kid.

 

I don't remember anyone telling me that overunity even exists (as a concept) until I started playing around on the internet.
Even the Law of Conservation of Energy does not explicitly say energy can not be generated by its own load. "Energy can not be destroyed or created, only converted (except in the case of atomic energy reactions). You actually have to rub two brain cells together to get to "overunity can not be done in the real world".

Wylie Coyote demonstrates overunity every time he bounces, so I'd say a lot of children could misinterpret that as feasible.

 

Most everybody knows perpetual motion is impossible.

However, most people don't equate running a motor from a generator that is spun by the motor with "perpetual motion", they are looking for "FREE Electricity!!!!"

 

This is standard fare in any introductory Physics course known as the law of conservation of energy.

The "physics" course I took was called "Integrated Physics and Chemistry." It was, as the name implies, a compromise of 2 subjects. We learned about Lewis dot symbols and Newton's laws. We made boxes with eggs inside and dropped them from the bleachers, and made cars powered by mouse traps, and that was the extent of it, as I remember. I may have been informed of the law of conservation of energy in that class, but I know that I wasn't told outright that closed loop systems with perpetual positive feedback were impossible. The inherent deduction of that fact may not have escaped everyone in the class, but it did not make itself apparent to me.

just looking at the world with more than one brain cell tells you it's impossible.

True, now. It's obvious to me now that I know a little about how the world and the universe works, but as a 10 y/o kid it seemed perfectly plausible. It didn't help that my parents found it equally as plausible as I did, and encouraged me.

It's something that was taught in about the 3th grade when I was a kid.

Where did you go to school?

 

Given my age I doubt anyone at school even heard of it or suggested that, but I recall an article in one of the local newspapers showing a car running on plain water with a huge flywheel to "save" energy while stopped at the traffic lights. Does it qualify?

 

I think I was first introduced to the principle of conservation of energy at 16 or 17.
Overunity came only a bit later with some internet videos of perpetual motion machines.

 

Most everybody knows perpetual motion is impossible.

"Perpetual motion" is fine, planets perpetually orbit their star (negating collisions) electrons perpetually orbit their nucleus etc.

You can also have perpetual motion in any device that absorbs energy from somewhere, like the dunking birds in school science class. Or a solar panel, battery and electric motor.

The problem is not really the idea of perpetual motion, but the idea that you can extract energy from something AND have it continue perpetually.

 

Where did you go to school?

Texas and the third grade was a long time ago. Growing up at a time when things seemed more mechanically complex because of the lack of cheap electronics helped most people understand simple physics because many daily activities required manual labor instead of pressing a button to make it work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIjoe4Z3GzI

Lessons about of work and energy still begin at about the 3rd grade. (from my kids homework) There might not be a deep understanding about thermodynamics but the basic idea is there about energy sources and how it's converted.

 

I was never formally taught what over-unity was. I remember that I was taught that no useful energy transfer is ever 100% efficient and from that, one can gather that there can be no over-unity device.

I remember as a kid I tried to 'design' an over-unity device(motor powers generator, generator powers motor). I eventually learned that it wasn't possible, I figured there was a reason it wouldn't work as people like Tesla and Edison never made one, but part of me kept saying, "but what if...". The childhood dream didn't die(understanding of why it died) until I took a college course on electromagnetism.