# Will this wheel turn forever?

- Series: [Pause Machines](https://miu.fm/pausemachines.md)
- Premieres: 2026-11-03
- Page: https://miu.fm/pausemachines/will-this-wheel-turn-forever

## Story

Will this wheel turn forever?

The overbalanced wheel is the oldest perpetual motion machine there is: Bhaskara drew one about 1150. Weights that swing out on one side and tuck in on the other should keep a wheel turning by itself. Here eight glass marbles roll in brass channels across a walnut wheel, and one is red. Watch where they go: they roll out to the rim on the side that is rising and sit by the hub on the side that is falling, so they hold the wheel back, and every turn each one falls the length of its channel and stops dead in the felt. A little motor and a leather belt pay for every one of those falls, and a tin inventor in a tall hat watches, waiting for forever. But the belt's lacing is starting to tear.

Every knock and every music-box note is timed by the machine itself.

Stay for the end.

Did you think it would keep going?

## Follow

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pausemachines/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pausemachines

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