Experiment 7

The RC Circuit

Apparatus

Power Supply
Voltmeter
Capacitors and Resistors
Connecting Leads
Stopwatch

Reading Assignment

Read related topics from your Physics Textbook.

Introduction

Charging of a capacitor through a resistance.

Consider an RC circuit connected to a fixed voltage source as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

If a voltage source of voltage o is connected to a RC circuit, the voltage Vc across the

capacitor increases with time according to the equation (Vc = 0 at t = 0);

Vc = o (1 – e–t/RC) (1)

where e is the base of the natural logarithm (e = 2.718…), o is the voltage of the source, R is
the resistance in the circuit, C is the capacitance. The product RC is called the time constant of
the circuit.

After a time t equal to one time constant, t = RC, the voltage is

Vc = o (1 – e–RC/RC)

= o (1 – e–1)

= o (0.6321),
Vc
or, in other words, =0.63 (2)
ε0
That is, the voltage across the capacitor is approximately 0.63 (or 63%) of its maximum value
when the time has reached one time constant. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

For a fixed voltage source o, the capacitor voltage continues to increase towards the value o ,
actually it never reaches o. Notice when the time t is equal to five time constants
( t = 5 RC) the capacitor voltage reaches more than 99% of o, thus we can then say the
capacitor voltage is equal to o.

Discharging of a capacitor through a resistance

If a charged capacitor is connected to a resistor, the capacitor begins to discharge through the
resistor as shown in Figure 3.

The capacitor voltage as a function of time is given by (Vc = o at time t = 0);

Vc =o e–t/RC (3)

At time equal to one time constant (t = RC)

Vc = o (e–RC/RC)

= o (e–1)

= o (0.3679),

or, in other words, Vc (4)

=0.37
ε0
While, the capacitor is discharging the voltage across it Vc, decreases to the 37% of the initial
voltage o , in one time constant.

Figure 3.

When a capacitor charged to voltage o is allowed to discharge through a resistor R, its voltage
decreases towards 0 V but it never reaches 0 V.

Series and Parallel combination of two capacitors.

Two or more capacitors can be connected in series or parallel combinations. The total
combined capacitance (equivalent capacitance) depends upon the combination.

For series combination the equivalent capacitance (Cs) is given by:

1 1 1
= + +… (5)
C s C1 C 2

And in the parallel combinations:

CP = C1 + C2 +… (6)

It can be noticed here that the equivalent capacitance for series and parallel combinations are
exactly opposite of the equivalent resistance.

In the first part of the experiment, an initially uncharged capacitor is connected to a voltage
source, and the voltage across the capacitor is measured as a function of time. A high internal
resistance digital voltmeter is used to measure the capacitor voltage. This is necessary in
order to minimize the flow of current through the voltmeter itself, which would affect the time
constant of the circuit being studied. The data obtained will then be used to determine the time
constant of the circuit. And in part II, equivalent capacitance for series and parallel
combination of two capacitor will be determined.
Procedure

1. Set up the circuit shown in Figure 4.

2. Connect a shorting wire across the capacitor C.

o

Figure 4.

3. Switch the power supply on. Adjust the voltage to 8.0 volts using a voltmeter.

4. Remove the shorting wire and start the stopwatch at the same time.

5. Take time readings for voltage readings from the voltmeter of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0,
and 7.0V. Record the data in Table 1.

6. Plot a graph of Vc versus t. Determine the time constant.

7. Disconnect the power supply from the circuit when the capacitor is fully charged.

8. Discharge the capacitor through the resistor and record the time readings for 8.0, 7.0, 6.0,
5.0, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, and 1.0V. Tabulate your data.

9. Plot a graph of Vc versus t. Determine the time constant.

10. Compare the value of  with the value of the product RC.

11. Perform the experiment for the following circuits by using the Interface.

Series combination Parallel Combination

Figure 5a Figure 5b
Series and Parallel combinations of a capacitor using an interface.

a) Complete the circuit of a 100 ohms resistor in series with a series combination of
two capacitor.
b) Connect the voltage sensor leads from the interface “A” parallel to the capacitors.
c) Connect the output from the interface to RC circuit.

d) Double Click on the program “Capstone” .

e) Click on “hardware setup” from the tool pallete on the left side of the window.

f) Click on Channel A and “Voltage Sensor” from the list. Click on the hardware
Icon to hide the controls.

g) Click on “Signal generator” from the tool pallet on the left side of the
window. Set the waveform to “positive square wave”, frequency to 0.4 Hz, and
amplitude to “5V”. Click on the “On” button to turn on the signal generator. Click
the signal generator Icon to hide the controls.
h) Set the data sample rate of the voltage sensor to “5000Hz” (look at the bottom
bar).

i) Click on “graph” from the top right and drag to the main window. Click on
“select measurement” on the y-axis and choose Voltage (V). The x-axis will
automatically change to time(s).

j) Click the “Record” button at the bottom left to begin the experiment.

k) Click on “Stop” after two complete cycles of charging and discharging.

l) Use the “cursor and hand tool” to adjust x and y scale.
m) Click on the “add a coordinates tool” from the tool bar of the graph and select
add coordinates/Delta tool. Adjust the cross wire at the point where the capacitor
voltage start to rise. Then right click on the cross wire and select show Delta Tool.
Drag the delta tool to the point on the graph where voltage is 0.630, where 0 =
5V. Record the corresponding time as the experimental time constant for series
series exp.

n) Repeat steps from (a – m) for parallel combination of capacitors. Record the

corresponding time as the experimental time constant for parallel.