The basic premise is that you can somehow maneuver weights around on a wheel, to allow one side to fall with more force than it takes to lift the other.
As flawed as it may be, I'd like to examine the fundamentals:
With a static force like gravity or magnetics, it's easy to calculate the energy flow.
Based on observations, it's easy to see that when an object is pulled by a static force, it takes an equal but opposing force to lift it back to where it fell from. If you want to lift it further than that, then more energy is required.
So the conventional overbalanced wheel idea is out. When one weight is pulled down, you can capture that energy to lift an opposite wheel by the same distance only. Any time you take energy away, the lifted weight wont lift as far... this is your basic pendulum oscillation. friction taking some of the energy out.
At any rate, The problem lies with static forces.. if you could capture and apmlify variations in this force, you could pull this idea off with a perfectly balanced wheel.
For example.. If one could find a location on earth where an isolated space has a gravity field weaker or greater than the space just next to it, all you need to do is position one side of a wheel over this variation, and the wheel will start turning with a force equal to the difference between the two gravitational fields. (give or take some variables, this is good enough for general calculations)
Do these gravitational variations exist? could they be the cause of tornados and related whirls of fluid?
Can a variation in the gravitational field be manipulated? Some researchers in Australia think so.
There was an article published a year or so ago, in which a team of researchers claimed to reduce the force of gravity over a spinning superconducting ceramic disk.
If these claims can be replicated, what are the implications? Could one simply build a gigantic steel disk, over a spinning superconductor to produce enormous horsepower for free?
Just to play devils advocate for a second, There is a chance that you're simply re-directing gravity fields, creating something of a vacuum. If that's the case, then the laws of physics strike again, and you're only reducing gravity over a point proportional to the power you put into the spinning of such a superconductor. In which case, you end up getting out what you put in, and this idea is useless.. Even if it turns out to work this way, it should make some interesting advancements in energy generation, and/or space travel.
Just some thoughts, please discuss.