RC CIRCUITS:

INTRODUCTION:
In this experiment, we perform a study of the behaviour of the charge on capacitor plates, across time
as it discharges & charges, with a resistance ridden circuit.
For the purpose of this study, we engage in the construction of a relaxation oscillator, also known as a
flasher. We apply the Kirchhoff’s voltage rule to a capacitance (C) and a resistance (R) both of which
are connected in series, to make the inference that the voltage across the capacitor as it discharges
through the resistor is given by:

where V0 is the voltage at t  0 and   RC is called the capacitive time constant for the RC
combination, which refers to the constant that sets the time scale on which the discharge occurs.
Analogously, the equation for the charging process is given by:

ANALYSIS:
PART I: QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGING & DISCHARGING
Prediction: In this part of the experiment, based on the two equations mentioned above characterizing
the behavior of voltage when charging & discharging, we predict that the brightness shall be low and
immediately increase in brightness. When moved from position two, we can expect an opposite
behavior with the bulb brightness.

1: Brightness
1: Brightness vs. Time invs. Time in
Position 1 -Position
Charging1 – Charging 2: Brightness vs. Time in Position 2 - Discharging

Observation: We observe that at the beginning of the experiment, the bulb became charged causing
the bulb to light up. It dimmed right after, which can be attributed to the transfer of the burst of
current at the last moment. When me move to position 2, discharging, the bulb followed a similar
pattern of brightening and dimming with the characteristic that the bulb lit brighter and dimmed
slower.
Part II: QUANTITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGING & DISCHARGING
Measure of Resistance = 98.9 Ω ± 0.2
Measure of Capacitance = 19.30 µF ± 3.474
 I. Using these values, we get the capacitive time constant as:
 = 98.9 Ω x 19.30 µF = 1908.77 ± 3.479 seconds

3: Current vs Time Curve in Charging & Discharging Circuit

4: Voltage vs Time in Charging & Discharging Circuit

II. Charge 63.2% done at 7.20s at 3.7288 V to get:

1 = 1.969697 s

Discharge 63.2% at 10.445s at 7.1719 V

III. While Charging,

C = 0.4619
C = 1/0.4619 = 2.16497 s

While Discharging,
C = 0.4722
C = 1/0.4722 = 2.117746 s

Now finally,

0 = 1.57 ± 0.1 seconds at 37% charging & discharging.

Comparison of C:
We see that all three values of time constants are similar and within a ± 0.2 difference. This
strengthens confidence in our calculations with a slightly large margin of error, i.e., uncertainty in the
recording of capacitance measures.
PART III: FLASHER AKA RELAXATION OSCILLATOR

I. With one 1 µF capacitor in 10 flashes during 8.093 seconds. Therefore,  = 8.093/20s =

0.40405s between each flash.
II. With two 1 µF capacitors connected in series.
Prediction: We predict that when we replace the capacitor with teo capacitors of same strength, the
flashes will be faster because more energy is being burst out in 20 flashes in the now reduced 4.7s
duration.
Tabulating the data,

1 Capacitor
Points
(seconds)
1 0.93
2 0.59
3 0.84
4 0.75
5 0.87
6 0.87
7 0.87
8 0.83
9 0.87
10 0.8
2 Capacitors
Points
(seconds)
1 0.55
2 0.5
3 0.47
4 0.46
5 0.51
6 0.52
7 0.49
8 0.51
9 0.49
10 0.49

Looking at the curve, we have:

5: Voltage across Time in a Relaxation Circuit

Hence, we can conclude that our prediction was correct, and the time has been cut in flash because of
the doubling of energy due to increasing the number of capacitors.
CONCLUSION:
In this experiment, we are able to appreciate the fact that when energy is stored in a capacitor, it
linearly charges using a resistor induced circuit, and then exponentially discharges. Increasing the
number of capacitors in the circuit increases the speed of this process but keeps the pattern
unchanged. We also see that are quantitative observations are in tandem with our qualitative
observations.