# Can anyone analyze this perpetual machine that a Norwegian built?

Take a look at this video:

It shows a machine that a Norwegian artist built. It seemingly keeps going forever. They filmed it over 3 days and it kept going at the same time.

Can someone analyze the energy losses in this machine?

I'm seeing several losses at the moment:

1. The ball is losing energy due to friction while going around the track.
2. The pendulums are losing energy due to air friction.

What other sources of energy losses can you notice?

• The machine cannot be fully analyzed without a thorough examination of the "pendulum hidden in its base". One can only speculate on what may be there, such as an energy storage device arranged to replace the energy dissipated by the rolling ball and all those other moving parts. Perpetual motion? No. Apparently perpetual if you don't look to long or too carefully. – Anthony X Jun 8 '15 at 3:32

I actually have a similar machine at my house. It is also a high-Q mechanical resonator with a very narrow frequency acceptance; I have compared it to standard frequency references and I believe its stability is $\Delta f/f \approx 1\times 10^{-4}$. Here's a photo of it: