>>> Bill Johnson <rennkafer@CONNECTCORP.NET> 01/16 10:19 PM >>>
I took it out and held it under the light, the black side trails...
>>>

Gilbert & Sullivan said it best in HMS Pinafore as sung by Miss Buttercup:
"Things are seldom what they seem, 
Skim milk masquerades as cream;..."

If the paddles turns with the black side trailing it cannot be working because of PHOTONS.  We all know that shinning surfaces reflects light and black surfaces absord light.  So, when light strikes on the both sides of the paddles, light is bounced off the shinny side - so in the particle model of light, photons are bounced off the shinny side. This would than imply that the paddle should spin with the shinning side trailing!

If indeed this little gissmo is photon driven, it would and probably only work in vacuum. The truth of the matter is that this little bulb is not vacuum..only slightly depressuried.  It is not a photon driven machine.

This is how it works:  In the sunlight, the black surface heats up more than the shinning surface.  So the dark side of the paddle is hotter and heats up the air on it surface.  The air expands and pushes it forward.. thus the paddle spins with the black side trailing.  Put it under a cold light source, like a flourence light and it won;t turn.  Remove the air from inside the bulb totally, and it won't work either.

Sorry.. Mechanical "force" from photons, even travelling at the speed of light is neglible and would be quite insufficient to power the little paddle wheel, much less power the vanagon... and "neglible" and "insufficient" is the understandment of the century!

Yau-Man Chan
87 GL