Sonoma State University

The B.S. in Physics Returns to Sonoma State University!

Sonoma State University is proud to re-launch its Bachelor of Science in Physics, featuring a redesigned, student-centered curriculum available beginning Fall 2026. The revised program offers a rigorous physics foundation, small class sizes, close faculty mentorship, and flexible pathways that support timely graduation. Please see our degree programs page for more information.

February 19, 2018

Things One Can Learn by Putting a Quadcopter in a Vaccuum Chamber

Eric J Ayars

Darwin 103
3:00 PM

Quadcopters (also known as “drones”) do not fly in vacuum. This is obvious enough that experimenting on one in a vacuum chamber would seem rather uninteresting, but there is one question that Eric J Ayars will address by such an experiment: the mechanism for yaw control. Quadcopters control yaw (rotation about the vertical axis) by differential rotor speed, and the question of whether those changes in rotor speed create yaw torque via conservation of angular momentum or via atmospheric drag can be addressed by “flying” a quadcopter in a vacuum where there is effectively zero atmospheric drag.