"It's not totally efficient, which is why it won't run in perpetuity,"
Oh dear.
Given a big enough thermal gradient between the item being cooled (the chip) and the surrounding medium (air), a Stirling engine should run indefinitely.
This thing won't stop due to *inefficiency*, it will stop once the CPU has cooled sufficiently.
Theoretically, if the chip is perpetually on, the engine will run in perpetuity, even though it is not a perpetual motion device.
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Running in perpetuity...?
"It's not totally efficient, which is why it won't run in perpetuity,"
Oh dear.
Given a big enough thermal gradient between the item being cooled (the chip) and the surrounding medium (air), a Stirling engine should run indefinitely.
This thing won't stop due to *inefficiency*, it will stop once the CPU has cooled sufficiently.
Theoretically, if the chip is perpetually on, the engine will run in perpetuity, even though it is not a perpetual motion device.