"Perpetual Motion Machine"

The Real-life Version of M.C.Escher's Waterfall (2011)


In Jan 2011, a Video of Escher's waterfall in real life went viral.
My Friend Hao, who is an electronic engineer, showed me that video and asked me if I have any idea of how it's made. Then together we figured out the myth behind the video.
As more and more friends came ask us "is it a perpetual motion machine?", we thought, well, of course not, and why not make our own version of waterfall "perpetual motion machine", to show people the visual illution in it, as well as the theroy of second law of thermodynamics - why perpetual motion machine is impossable.
So we made our own perpetual motion machine - not really, but it certainly looks like one. Based on Escher’s Waterfall, but real water actually flows through it. We built it in 3D modeling oftware, then hand bulit the structure from ABS plastic sheets and customlized texture wallpaper, plus some electronic to control the water flow. Later, a companion article explaining how it’s done and all the science in it.
Read more at ours instructables.

Making Processing