# The difference between free energy and perpetual motion [closed]

What is the difference between free energy (over unity) and perpetual motion?

Please provide some examples, both real world and theoretical.

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## closed as not a real question by Deepak Vaid, Greg Graviton, nibot, David Z♦Feb 23 '11 at 17:19

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, visit the help center. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

In actual science, free energy is the energy with an extra term, meaning the total energy that may be converted to work. Free energy is $$A=U-TS$$ which is the Helmholtz version or $$G=E+pV-TS$$ which is the Gibbs version. None of those energies is for "free" in the layman's sense - they're just different ways of counting energy and its transfer (including work) in which energy is ultimately conserved.