How do you think adding weight to a drone will affect its battery life?.Some hobbyists object to the use of the word "drone" to describe these aircraft, due to the association with military technology, but Science Buddies will stick with the current popular usage. More generally, any aircraft that does not have an on-board human pilot can also be referred to as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aerial system (UAS). Today they are flown for recreational and business purposes (for example, aerial photography during sporting events). Technological advances made quadcopters increasingly cheaper and easier for beginners to fly, leading to their rise in popularity. (more generally called "multirotors," since some models have six or even eight blades), many of which contained on-board cameras. The word "drone" in recreational context (as opposed to military) became common in the early 2010's mostly in reference to quadcopters Hobbyists have been flying model aircraft-primarily small radio-controlled (RC) planes and helicopters-for decades, and they were not referred to as drones.įor a long time, this was a fairly specialized hobby, as the aircraft were more expensive and more difficult to fly. However, since most kitchen scales provide measurements in grams, not newtons, you should make sure you refer to the "mass" of the drone-not the weight-when recording data for your project.Īs noted in the introduction, use of the word "drone" has changed over time. When you add coins to your drone, you are increasing both its mass (you are adding more matter) and its weight (since gravity is pulling on that matter). Gravity does not change that, so your mass is the same on Earth as it is on the moon. Mass is a measure of how much matter (atoms) you are made up of. Mass, however, does not depend on gravity. You weigh more on Earth than you would on the moon, because the moon has less gravity than Earth. Weight depends on gravity, and in the metric system it is measured in newtons (N). In the metric system (which is always used for science), grams are a unit of mass, not weight. Are you ready to start your own drone package delivery business?Īlthough in everyday language it would be common to answer "How much does the drone weigh?" with "The drone weighs 100 grams," technically this is incorrect. This will let you collect enough data to see how added weight affects the battery life. You will then measure how long the drone can fly before the battery dies, recharge the battery, and try again with a different number of coins. In this project, you will add weight to your drone by taping coins to its frame. This limits how far the drones can fly, especially if they need to make a round trip to drop off a package and return. For small toy drones, the battery life is usually less than 10 minutes. Spinning those propellers takes a lot of energy, which can drain the battery quickly. Increasing a drone's weight means it has to generate more lift to stay in the air, meaning its propellers have to spin faster. The propellers are driven by electric motors, which draw electrical power from the batteries. This lift is generated by spinning propellers. In order to stay in the air, a drone must generate lift, or an upward force (or push) that overcomes the downward force (or pull) of its weight due to gravity. Many small drones have a short battery life, meaning the amount of time the drone can fly before the battery depletes and needs to be recharged. Package delivery introduces a big challenge, though. An example of a toy drone, commonly called a quadcopter, since it has four blades.
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