#755 Developing "Flubber" Today

#755 Developing "Flubber" Today

#755 In the Absent Minded Professor, the professor invents Flying Rubber or Flubber which the professor states that it bounces higher and higher because it "generates its own energy".  Thinking creatively given 2021 know physics, could something like this be developed?  Or, could a ball that get energy input from the outside as it bounces be developed to do the same as Flubber?

The concept of "Flubber" as described in "The Absent-Minded Professor" is currently beyond the reach of our understanding of physics, particularly due to the conservation of energy principle, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. In the movie, Flubber is said to "generate its own energy," which would directly violate this fundamental law of physics.

In real-life, when a ball bounces, energy is lost with each bounce, primarily in the form of heat due to the deformation of the ball and the impact with the surface it hits. This loss is why a ball eventually comes to rest after bouncing; it's gradually losing energy with each bounce.

However, your second question opens up some possibilities. Could a ball get energy input from the outside as it bounces? Here are a couple of creative, yet somewhat feasible ideas, with the caveat that the current technology may not be advanced enough to fully realize them:

1. Piezoelectric materials: Piezoelectric materials generate an electric charge in response to mechanical stress. In theory, one could imagine a ball made of (or containing) a piezoelectric material that, when it bounces and deforms, generates electricity. This electricity could then be used to somehow "power" the next bounce. But currently, it's hard to envision how this electricity would be used to enhance the kinetic energy of the bounce in a meaningful way, and any attempt to do so would also have to contend with energy losses inherent in the conversion process.
2. Magnetic fields: You could also imagine a bouncing surface that changes its magnetic field in a way that assists the bounce of a magnetically-responsive ball. For instance, if the surface could sense the ball's impact and respond by momentarily reversing its magnetic field, it could give the ball a magnetic "push" to supplement the ball's natural bounce. However, this would require highly sensitive, responsive, and powerful magnetic systems that we're not currently capable of producing, to say nothing of the energy required to operate such a system.

In summary, while these ideas are theoretically conceivable, they're currently beyond our technological capabilities and would have significant challenges to overcome. The concept of "Flubber" itself, however, remains firmly in the realm of fiction due to its violation of the law of conservation of energy.

From <https://chat.openai.com/?model=gpt-4>