Sheldon Arakawa2229-9979Perpetual Motion: The Atmos ClockThe quest for perpetual motion has been pursued by scientists for hundreds of years. Astonishingly, within the last century a man designed a device that operated using energy created from miniscule variations of temperature thus giving the appearance of indefinite motion. In 1928, a Swiss engineer named Jean-Lon Reutter invented the Atmos clock. The device was later refined and manufactured by Jaeger-LeCoultre.The Atmos clock operates using a seemingly boundless power source which consists of an airtight vessel that contains ethyl chloride. The ethyl chloride operates as a gaseous and liquid mixture state. Given an elevated temperature, the ethyl chloride vaporizes and expands into an expansion chamber which compresses a spring. Conversely, when the temperature decreases, the ethyl chloride condenses causing the compressed spring to slacken. The continuous compression and decompression of the spring constantly winds a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon that serves as the mainspring. The mainspring surrounds the arbor, which is a metal axle that connects to the barrels of the clock. The mainspring provides the driving force that spins the axle thus providing motion throughout the clock, specifically the pendulum. Under normal circumstances, the mainspring can only provide a finite amount of driving force, but in the case of the Atmos clock, the mainspring is postulated to have nearly unlimited driving force from the ethyl chloride power source.However, while it appears that the Atmos clock can function indefinitely, it important to note that it does not satisfy the definition of perpetual motion; functioning for years without intervention is vastly different from functioning forever. A machine exhibiting perpetual motion is a hypothetical apparatus that can do work for an unlimited amount of time without a source of energy. The notion of perpetual motion contradicts both the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Given that the Atmos clock is not considered in an idealized process, energy is not perfectly transferred, specifically due to friction losses and infinitesimal heat transfer within the clocks machinery. With the dissipation of energy through the clock that coincides with friction loss in the springs and gears, there is also an increase of entropy. Furthermore, consider that the Atmos clock operates under the occurrence of a thermal gradient, and the second law of thermodynamics basically states that heat flows spontaneously from hotter to colder mediums. Therefore, the output of the power source in the Atmos clock must be necessarily smaller than the input power. The differential power is lost as heat transfer to the ambient temperature. Moreover, for the Atmos clock to achieve perpetual motion, it cannot have any irreversibilities, since the clock must be reversible to be perfectly efficient. A reversible process implies the process is also quasi-equilibrium, meaning that all intensive properties must be uniform throughout the intermediate states. However, since the clock contains reversibilities as evident from energy losses, the Atmos clock does not operate as a quasi-equilibrium process.Given the first and second laws of thermodynamics, the Atmos clock is definitely not a mechanism of perpetual motion, neither should it be considered a machine close to achieving perpetual motion. In science, a perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical concept used to compare to real-world mechanisms to for factors such as thermal efficiency. To create a machine that produces perpetual motion is to produce a machine that defies the first and second laws of thermodynamics, thus unraveling modern science. To say the Atmos clock is a contraption close to achieving perpetual motion is to say it is a machine close to breaking the laws of thermodynamics, which is seemingly absurd.