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dwaynefries
So I was thinking and now confused. If we created an artificial planet of just liquid water, and it had a moon orbiting, much like the moon that we have orbiting our planet and there were no outside influences of the sun or anything else, and then the moon has a continuous orbit that requires no outside forces nor takes any. Over the entire surface of this planet, we place wave-electric generators where as the waves and tides move up and down, this will cause an electric generator to generate electricity.
Where I am confused is if we allow this to run for a long period of time, we will continually generate electricity, but where is the energy coming from? We have an initial energy within the system and the moon remains in orbit.
With this scenereo, I have thought of some other factors that may come into play, but still confused. It seems as though this would violate the law of conservation of mass and energy. It seems as though energy is continuously generated from the waves where no energy is going into the system.
Can anyone see what I am missing?
buttershug
Our moon is slowing the Earth's rotation because of the tides.
I'm sure in your scenario the energy would come something along those lines.
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