Motion itself is caused by a form of energy(kinetic energy). So extracting energy from the system would just cause it to slow down.
The reason you can't gather an infinite or "close to infinite" amount of power from a machine, is because to do so, would require the machine to create energy from nothing, causing it to not slow down as energy is extracted from it. But that is not possible as it breaks the laws of energy conservation (energy is neither created nor destroyed).
greenspotj t1_ja6ghit wrote
Reply to comment by FrozenKyrie in eli5 perpetual motion is impossible but why haven't we made something that just goes on for a really long time that we then service so it can keep going? by FrozenKyrie
Motion itself is caused by a form of energy(kinetic energy). So extracting energy from the system would just cause it to slow down.
The reason you can't gather an infinite or "close to infinite" amount of power from a machine, is because to do so, would require the machine to create energy from nothing, causing it to not slow down as energy is extracted from it. But that is not possible as it breaks the laws of energy conservation (energy is neither created nor destroyed).