Combine Perpetual Motion Machines

[fishdbaz]

Remember those Combine energy orbs?
Well, I've got a theory about them...

From: Fishdabaz ([email protected])
Sent: June 3, 2008 8:37:22 PM
To: [email protected]

Hi!
You know those those bouncy energy orbs from Half-Life 2? Well, I've been thinking and I realized they could be used as part of a perpetual motion machine... I mean, as long as they're kept in a stable enviroment they can just keep bouncing back and forth forever, creating burts of energy (or something like that) every time they collide with something and if that energy could be harnessed, well then you have an unlimited resource.

I realize that the Combine use these orbs as an energy source, but am I right about the Combine using them in perpetual motion machines?
Please answer!

Sincerely Fishdabaz


You know what? Mister Laidlaw sent me a response...


RE: Perpetual Motion Machine‏
From: Marc Laidlaw ([email protected])
Sent: June 3, 2008 8:44:39 PM
To: Fishdabaz ([email protected])

Maybe it's time to contact the patent office.


Oh yeah, and I sent this to him in response...


From: Alex Jones ([email protected])
Sent: June 3, 2008 8:54:47 PM
To: Marc Laidlaw ([email protected])

I would, but unfortunately they don't except patents for perpetual motion machines anymore because of some crap about thermodynamics or something... Well there's that, and there's the fact that I don't have the time or the patience to harness dark energy.


What do you say? DISCUSS!

 

[Van Kayne]

That's really quite a unique idea. After all, if the orbs themselves were batteries of pure energy, when they explode one would expect something a bit more powerful than what they do in the game. If the orbs contain just enough energy to make the Combine version of a rubber ball to bounce around, then their "explosiveness" makes more sense.

For those not in the know, the main problem to perpetual energy machines is friction, and if the orb is just bouncing through air then the friction is about as low as you're going to get it, maybe low enough to be worth it.

But how do the balls ignore gravity, and how does the gravity gun work on them? They're the real questions I'd love to know.

IDEA: If they're not affected by gravity, maybe they're not affected by air resistance? (I know in-game they don't slow down, but then again, bullets don't either).

EDIT: But what about the receptacle-devices? You know, the ones in Ep 1 and Portal that you shoot the orbs into to make them go. It could be they just reverberate in the little cage thing super fast and more energy is extracted from that.

 

[Druckles]

I assumed they lost energy everytime they hit something. Thus, their exploding was due to the energy levels being lower than enough to contain it. Or some other bullshit.

I never honestly considered it.

 

[Polaris]

Amusing fact: Before Valve, Marc Laidlaw worked in the patent office.

 

[ríomhaire]

But they do collapse after a while when they bounce around. They only don't collapse when they're being held in of the of Combine's shiny blue force fields. Those force fields probably need energy to operate and I'd bet it's more energy than you'd get from trying to harness their bounciness. Anyway. Power is already harnessed from them in the Combine generators so why would you try harnessing their power in a sillier way than is already done?

 

[Probydoby]

But if they are not affected by gravity, Then how can a gravity manipulator, hold these balls?
And how is it possible for the whole enemy to vaporize, when they touch the ball? a hole in their body where the ball went makes more sense, right?

Too bad we can't say for sure, because we dont even know what they are.
Besides they are round and they glow and combine uses them as energy sources

 

[tschumann]

maybe they vaporize you because they're nuclear? and it does make sense to be vapoirzed by them because they explode on contact, they don't penetrate your body.

 

[Tenebrais]

Bear in mind that "gravity gun" is only a name. It's a zero-point energy field manipulator. Even then, the thing a) is stronger than Earth's gravity (admittedly that's not difficult) and b) only affects the orbs when super-charged, meaning a large amount of force is needed to affect them. Who knows, maybe the orbs remain unaffected by gravitons but the modified Manipulator utilises particles that can move them.

 

[Van Kayne]

Perhaps. Maybe we're just reading into this email too much.

Just as an aside, didn't one of the Valve staff respond to an email with something along the lines of
"In the Half-life universe, certain types of energy naturally form into spheres", as an explanation of why both Aperture Science and the Combine use them?

I can't seem to find that email anywhere. Any help?

 

[Polaris]

It wasn't an email, it was from interview in the magazine Games for Windows.

Hint: Flickr, Gabe Newell, Page 2, Portal picture.

 

[ríomhaire]

But if they are not affected by gravity, Then how can a gravity manipulator, hold these balls?

A: No one has said that the balls are not affected by gravity. Sure the balls bounce around in random directions but this could just be the energy of the ball overcoming the force of gravity, rather than ignoring it.
B: "Gravity gun" is just a nickname. The device is actually a zero-point energy field manipulator. It does not manipulate gravity.

And how is it possible for the whole enemy to vaporize, when they touch the ball? a hole in their body where the ball went makes more sense, right?

That would be much harder to programme into the game and might not look as cool.

Too bad we can't say for sure, because we dont even know what they are.
Besides they are round and they glow and combine uses them as energy sources

I think that the orbs are supposed to be energy (possibly dark energy) that has been compressed into a small space and has formed some sort of strange type of unstable, high-energy matter.

 

[Noodle]

B: "Gravity gun" is just a nickname. The device is actually a zero-point energy field manipulator. It does not manipulate gravity.

Yes, it is a nickname, and yes, it is actually a "Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator". And the specific field of energy being manipulated is matter's gravitational field.

I think that the orbs are supposed to be energy (possibly dark energy) that has been compressed into a small space and has formed some sort of strange type of unstable, high-energy matter.

I always ("always" being the past 10 minutes) thought they were just the Combine's version of a battery. It has special storage units that contain their otherwise unstable nature.

 

[jet_porkins]

Thread's a little old, but Marc Laidlaw's response to the OP's email made me lol.

 

[Maestro]

More like thread necromancy.

 

[jet_porkins]

2006 is necromancy. 2008 is more like a coma.

 

[Tagaziel]

Still rape.

 

[+255]

This makes me want to invent something...

 

[ranmafan]

Well, since this got revived... let's see.

In space, due to the lack of gravity, liquids take on the form with least resistance (that is, requiring the least amount of energy to form). By the laws of nature, that is the sphere (a lot of physics here I won't get into). If this 'dark matter' (with regards to it being an unknown material) sphere indeed contains energy, the sphere would be the easiest, least energy-consuming shape and method of containing it.

What actually contains the dark matter we don't know, but it's able to interact with, and tough enough to, survive several impacts against solid surfaces before collapsing and releasing the dark matter within. It's most likely a form of electromagnetic energy (which is the popular sci fi schtick, but with good reason). When it impacts against a surface, very likely a small amount of dark matter energy is released at the moment of impact, escaping through faults in the containment shell (which also saps its integrity). This energy is enough to vaporize living beings, but the actual output amount is unknown. Given that it can pass through an unlimited number of humans, the actual energy output required to vaporize a human must be infinitesimally small.

Likewise, when the sphere hits a Strider, it explodes immediately rather than bouncing off (probably a gameplay issue here). Now, we know Striders can take obscene amounts of punishment by the standards of a typical human, and it takes about 3 orbs in a Normal game to kill one. Doing so also causes the Strider to gib, something that doesn't happen otherwise. We can assume that most of the energy is wasted on release (it explodes in all directions rather than a directed charge) but it's safe to say even that fraction of energy is more powerful than the shaped charge delivered by a typical RPG.

What I think is that the storage units you see in the Cathedral are there to do two things: Draw energy from the dark matter orbs, and do so in a stable, sustainable manner. The only reason they appear to be 'perpetual motion' is because the energy drain is so small compared to the actual energy potential stored in each orb that they can go on almost indefinitely in a stable environment.

Note that the Citadel has hundreds of thousands of these things powering it, so how much energy must it be using? Millions of barrels of crude oil in a day?

So yeah, the second law of thermodynamics. =)

 

[Tagaziel]

That is one of the best and most thought out posts I've seen on these forums in a while.

You are lovely, man.

 

[ranmafan]

I don't post much, but I put thought into my posts. *points at join date*

 

[r_rr]

2 posts up, has to be the best theoretical description of these orbs that I've even seen.

Another good point why these orbs seem to break the laws of physics.