What it is
Perpetual-motion machines of the first kind claim to make energy from nothing (they violate conservation of energy). Machines of the second kind claim to turn heat entirely into work with no other effect (they violate the second law). Overunity generators, magnet motors, and “free energy” kits sold online are this family. None has passed a competent, independently replicated test.
Problem it targets
The wish is understandable: dense, clean, unlimited energy. The scam is to sell a wheel, a magnet, or a secret circuit as that wish. Every serious path — fusion, fission, geothermal, long-duration storage, space solar — still obeys the same laws.
How it works
Friction, electrical resistance, and radiation eat every real cycle. Magnets do not push a rotor around a closed loop for free; the field is conservative. A hidden battery or a measurement error is the usual “proof.” If a device needs a hidden power cord, it is not a miracle.
Status and players
No laboratory of record. Patent offices have long rejected perpetual-motion filings that lack a working model. For real abundant-energy research see the other cards in this Energy section: ITER, NIF, enhanced geothermal, long-duration storage, hydrogen (with losses stated), modular nuclear, and space solar.
Risks and limits
Money lost, time lost, and policy noise that drowns work that actually exists. Fix Planet will not list a “free energy” inventor as a solution.
Sources
Standard thermodynamics (first and second laws); U.S. USPTO perpetual-motion practice; IEA pages on fusion, geothermal, storage, hydrogen, and nuclear as the real research set.