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Egely wheel

Caz

Student
C
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
38
I hesitate to ask this in the "science" section, but could someone tell me how an egely wheel actually works, so I can rescue a good friend who is teetering dangerously on the brink of believing in chi.
Just heat? Draughts? She's not been quite convinced by that explanation so far. Very grateful for help here.
 
Well I notice that these people, who sell it, say that it's powered by a nine-volt battery ... oh, and the magical power of chi, of course. And telekinesis. And energy "of a higher dimension than energy we normally encounter such as light, sound, electricity, etc. such that it is vibrates faster than the speed of light."

If you have a video camera, it would be interesting to know what it does when there's no-one around to supply any chi.
 
Dr Adequate said:
Well I notice that these people, who sell it, say that it's powered by a nine-volt battery ... oh, and the magical power of chi, of course. And telekinesis. And energy "of a higher dimension than energy we normally encounter such as light, sound, electricity, etc. such that it is vibrates faster than the speed of light."

If you have a video camera, it would be interesting to know what it does when there's no-one around to supply any chi.
Click to expand...

They also say it will still spin without the battery...
4. Now we thought we had a good idea. We thought maybe the wheel turned because of the battery inside the unit. So we pulled out the battery and disconnected it. But the wheel still turned when we tried it. Only the sound and measurement lights were missing since we disconnected the battery. Oh well, might as well put it back in so we can see the lights again.
Click to expand...

Spooky - might have to buy one to figure it out. :eye-poppi

ETA: Nevermind, just saw the price. Not that big of a mystery!
 
Randi himself commented on it a few years ago in SWIFT - he claims it is wind powered, I think.

See this from the product website though:
1. We thought the rotation must be due to air currents in the room. So we built a glass box to cover the unit with special holes in each side to insert your hands. We then taped around the holes to seal off all outside currents. We were still able to make the wheel turn.
Click to expand...

I know it is not magic, but I still don't know how it works. I will keep looking
 
Smackety said:
Youtube debunkers say it is hot air from your hands.
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Although I don't beleive there is anything supernatural to this, I don't think the hot air explaination works either. One commmenter says that the spikes in the wheel are actually fins that catch the heat rising from your hands to spin the wheel. If this is true, the wheel would always spin the same way all the time, but the video clearly shows the wheel spinning in a different direction when a different hand is placed behind it.

I'm sure there's a natural explaination, I'm just not positive that it's caused by rising heat.
 
VespaGuy said:
I don't think the hot air explaination works either. One commmenter says that the spikes in the wheel are actually fins that catch the heat rising from your hands to spin the wheel. If this is true, the wheel would always spin the same way all the time, but the video clearly shows the wheel spinning in a different direction when a different hand is placed behind it.

I'm sure there's a natural explaination, I'm just not positive that it's caused by rising heat.
Click to expand...
Bi-metal strip.
 
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An interesting question would be: Does it spin if a cup of hot coffee (or water) is placed near it, or e.g. a light bulb nearby heats one side of it? Anyone ever tried that?
 
Has anyone seen one in person, and confirmed that the "still works without the battery" bit isn't... to put it nicely... a bit of an exageration?
 
There is no motor - the battery is for the Lights, the wheel is connected to nothing. Watch the video in post #7 - it is just a needle and a piece of paper
 
Many thanks for the replies here. There is a series of youtube videos http://video.aol.com/video-detail/egely-wheel-experiment-part-01/1402209662/?icid=VIDURVTEC11
(sorry don't know how to do those cute small links) which shows the guy systemmatically making changes, to eliminate heat, draughts etc. There is one where he places a hot iron next to the wheel, it moves a little, but slowly. And it seems to be a flat wheel, not with fins which would catch heat currents.
So I'm only sure of two things atm, 1) not chi 2) some other explanation which escapes me!

Thanks again guys, if you work this out, please post. :)
 
This is a far stretch, but what light? Like those paper fans that move when you shine a light on them? Except this time it's not so much light as possibly a shadow from the hand.
 
Smackety said:
There is no motor - the battery is for the Lights, the wheel is connected to nothing. Watch the video in post #7 - it is just a needle and a piece of paper
Click to expand...
That's not the same as what they're selling.

And that actually is a trick: the guy who does it explains it in his notes on the video:

Moving on, the trick was very simple. Both videos made use of the same gimmick, a trick table ... In the first video, a pin sized hole was drilled in both the surface of the table as well as the plastic bowl the set up was sitting on. From there, a person off camera was blowing into a tube that was connected to this hole (under the table) which cause the wheel to spin. The second video used this same principle, but in a more sophisticated fashion. The surface of the table is hollow, with two separate air channels going to two different pin holes. Two tubes could "plug in" to each hole on the hollowed legs, which were hidden by thin layer of laminate that could pop on and off. This is why you can't see the bottoms of the two front legs on the video when the wheel is spinning. And again, I used an "associate" to plug and unplug the tubes as well as to blow into them for a more convincing illusion.
 
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Here is a link to a PDF of the patent application.
http://www.rexresearch.com/egely/WO9108703.pdf

From the (numerous) descriptions, one set up has the edge of the wheel traveling through a groove in the casing. This surrounding casing is described as a stator and "preferably" magnetised. Also, the rotor "preferably" should be PVC.

From the patent there is a fair amount of what the thing "could/should" be made of, but if you read between the lines, it seems that it is setting up a rotor that is sensitive to static electricity within a magnetic stator. (that is if you ignore the added obfuscating details).

... the stator should be made of some metal, possibly of any material with a large specific weight, so iron or lead, preferably the block is some magnetizable material
... If the whole cylinder jacket, i.e. the block of the stator is made of metal,
sensitivity of the apparatus is minimal
... if a stator is used, formatio f the airgap is imperative, as without the airgap the rotor will deflect to any direction, but no rotary motion is taking place.
...By increasing wall-thickness of the block...sensitivity of the apparatus can be increased, however, it proves effectual only up to a wall-thickness of 8-16mm.
Click to expand...
While the patent states that, "The rotor must not be magnetic or magnetizable.", "synthetic material seems to be more favorable, than paper. In such a manner using PVC, by 20% better results can be achieved, than with paper.
 
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EHocking said:
From the patent there is a fair amount of what the thing "could/should" be made of, but if you read between the lines, it seems that it is setting up a rotor that is sensitive to static electricity within a magnetic stator. (that is if you ignore the added obfuscating details).
Click to expand...

So this might be something like that:
http://users.tm.net/lapointe/Electrostatic_Motor.html

Right, then I guess it should run faster if the person to be tested does the "shuffle soles on carpet" thing? (assuming few do have a van-de-graaf generator at home ;) )
 
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