The YouTube channel The Action Lab has hundreds of videos dedicated to running different experiments, and many of them involve drones. We previously explored a drone flying inside a car, but now it's the turn of a drone flying in a closed box placed on a scale. The question is: Will there be any change in weight when the drone takes off, or will it stay the same as if it hadn't moved?
The usefulness of drones goes beyond their ability to fly. The truth is that we can learn a lot from them, starting with electronics, general mechanics, and aerodynamics. By installing bigger batteries, more efficient motors, and lightweight parts, the “user-pilot” will have to invest a good amount of time and money to find the configuration that best suits their needs. Another very attractive option (especially for the little ones) is to bring the drone into a lab.
Why do they fly the way they do? How much energy do they consume? How do they behave in a more hostile environment (say, a headwind)? And of course, what changes do they cause when flying in closed spaces? This is where The Action Lab comes in.
Watch the Experiment
A drone enclosed in an airtight box on a scale. The drone weighs 21 grams, the scale is set to zero, and when it takes off… what happens? What we see is a combination of our friend Isaac Newton and the so-called ground effect.
In relaxed terms, the drone’s thrust to stay in the air is equivalent to its weight, “reproducing” those 21 grams and keeping the scale at zero. Even if you remove the lid of the box or replace it with a piece of glass, the ground effect for such a compact drone is still there, and the scale reading doesn’t change.
Another story is his full-size drone. The surface of the glass is too small, causing the ground effect to be uneven and not fully compensate for the drone’s weight. In either case, if drones gain enough altitude, the scale will record the drone’s weight negatively, but if someone holds the drone over the scale and increases power, the reading will become positive.
