Alternative Energy Forums

I have been thinking a lot lately about various possibilities for alternative energy and have recently been interested in Gravity as a possibility.

From what I've been reading about gravity as a potential for energy production everybody seems to think about it in terms of producing energy only through motion. The problem with this is that it always requires energy to position something in order for gravity to act on it.

What ive been thinking about lately is that gravity is still producing a force even when there is no motion. The best idea I've had is this:

Suppose you had a pool of water and you placed a huge block on top of it so that it was sealed and no water would be displaced by the block. Suppose you continued to add weight on top of the block and the water had no where to go. It would eventually heat up due to the pressure. Then you just need to find a way to convert the heat into usable energy.

Any thoughts about this?

I have had an idea that I have been thinking a lot about lately... its goes something like this:
Using gravity to create perpetual motion,which would power a generator... I have a concept of how to make it work, and being an RC Model Airplane guy... I think I'll try & make a small model of it.

The problem with this type of energy production... the utility companies would fight, scratch & kill in order to keep this technology quite. It could virtually put them out of business. And I'm not sure I could blame them... as they have a fortune invested in current methods of production.... Hmmmm!

Kurt

(Dec 31 2009 10:34 PM)scott_edward Wrote:  Suppose you had a pool of water and you placed a huge block on top of it so that it was sealed and no water would be displaced by the block. Suppose you continued to add weight on top of the block and the water had no where to go. It would eventually heat up due to the pressure. Then you just need to find a way to convert the heat into usable energy.

Any thoughts about this?

You are correct in that the change in pressure will generate some heat. The problem: no heat is generate once the pressure stabilizes. You will have to keep adding weight in order to keep increasing the pressure and there by generating more heat. Seems like you would be wasting a lot of energy by moving all that weight around.