this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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No way, the portal displaces space meaning it just allows gravity to work unimpeded adding more kinetic energy to the object. The potential energy during a "falling cycle" is infinite but infinitely removed when the spacial disruption is broken.
By moving an object laterally into the portal falling loop, you would do no work and increase the potential energy of the object to effectively infinity. You would be creating energy.
I wouldn't consider that the portal, itself, imparting the energy, though. It's just facilitating an environment where an object can fall infinitely. The portal is outputting the same momentum that is inputted to it. The actual increase of energy happens while the object is falling between the portals.
The portal teleports an object to a position in space with high potential energy, while apparently spending no energy of its own. This action creates energy.
That's not how you calculate potential energy. If you were to put both portals on either side of a moving platform, you would pass right through it, because they are both moving at the same relative velocity. But if you make one of them stationary, you work like trowing a ball forward in a moving vehicle.
In this example, if you calculate as if both portals are stationary, the people are moving towards the portal, the portal isn't moving, and thus they fly out the other side.