The quick off the mark answer is categorically NO, however it seems to depend on how you phrase things as people are proposing magnet based engines seem to be able to run for 14 years…
People who claim perpetual motion is possible – whack jobs.
People who claim over-unity is possible – whack jobs.
People who claim that magnets can power things for a long time – less of a whack job.
For them among us who don’t know what unity means in this context, and got confused about over-unity above, this is a buzz-word for “violator of either the first law of thermodynamics, the second law of thermodynamics, or both” so you can see, for a start, its a whole lot more catchy. Boiled down over-unity means you get out more energy out of your device than you put in.
I think that one of the closest to being validated example is Howard R Johnson’s magnetic motor. People only mumble under their breath that “Mr Johnson is a whack job, but whatever, he still violates the laws of physics.”
Actually though, magnetic motors have more going for them than you may think. Lets look at the first law of thermodynamics for a minute. This law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed and can only be transferred from one type of energy to another by the performance of ‘work’. For example a battery has a stored amount of energy, if you have a very closed loop of wire with a light bulb in, it will remain lit while there is still energy in the battery… but when the battery goes flat, where did the energy go?
Basically the energy gets turned into light that you can see as well as heat.
But, what if it powered a motor. And this motor was attached to a dynamo (a motor in reverse) and it charged the battery? This may seem to work for a while, but eventually the energy stored in the system would leak out because of noise that you hear as the motor spins as well as heat in friction in the motor spindle and windings.
So back to magnetic motors. When you see people’s response to stuff, alright you the videos are like alien autopsies, so obviously they are hiding something, but debunkers blame the hidden drill. In actual fact there is no physical reason why magnetic motors could not actually work. So where would the additional energy come in, how useful would they be…
Bear in mind that to magnetise something takes a lot of energy itself – just like a battery – so why can’t you use a magnet to power something. Also like a battery, magnets wear out with over use, over loading or banging with a hammer etc. So, the argument now turns to how much energy can you get for your expenditure.
If you buy a bunch of magnets cheap enough, then they will have already paid for the energy it took to magnetise them. So, if you can use enough magnets to replace a bunch of batteries, then technically you will have free, clean, energy.
Based on this model however, if you grow marrows from seed and then put that money to your electricity bill, the same thing is occurring – and the plus side is that no-one will call you a “laws of physics defying whack job”