APS Executive Board Passes Resolution on Perpetual Motion Machines

The APS Executive Board approved a resolution at its June 2002 meeting in Annapolis, MD, affirming the fraudulent nature of claims of perpetual motion machines.

The resolution was deemed necessary because of a recent increase in patent applications for such devices. Robert Park, APS Director of Public Information and author of the weekly electronic newsletter "What's New," reported that the US Patent Office has received several patent applications for perpetual motion machines during the first six months of this year alone. [Park's 2000 book, Voodoo Science, devoted considerable space to the phenomenon of such devices throughout history.] The text of the APS resolution follows.

The Executive Board of the American Physical Society is concerned that in this period of unprecedented scientific advance, misguided or fraudulent claims of perpetual motion machines and other sources of unlimited free energy are proliferating. Such devices directly violate the most fundamental laws of nature, laws that have guided the scientific progress that is transforming our world.