LAB NO 6

Charging and Discharging of Capacitors.

Lab outcomes
After completing this lab students will be able to:
• Understand the working of capacitors in series circuit.
• Plot the voltage time graph of charging and discharging of capacitors.
Equipments:
• DC Power supply.
• Resistor.
• Capacitor.
• Breadboard.
• Jumper wires.
• Digital multi meter.
• Stop Watch.
• Graph paper.
Theory

• Passive device with two terminals,

capable of storing electrical energy
in an electric field, much like a small
rechargeable battery.
• But unlike Batteries, Capacitor
charges and discharges very quickly.
• Capacitors are used in almost every
electronic device like PC, cellphones
and even in electrical appliances like
fan.
• Capacitors works as a voltage
regulator in small electronic circuit
as it opposes any change in voltage.
Working of Capacitor:
• Capacitors are basically, two parallel plates
separated by any dielectric medium (i.e. Mica,
Glass, air etc…)
• Dielectric is an insulating material or a poor
conductor of electric current. No current flows
through a dielectric when it is placed in an
electric field.
• When we connect a battery across a capacitor, an
electric field develops across the dielectric,
causing a net positive charge to collect on one
conductor and an equal net negative charge to
collect on the other conductor. As a result, no
current flows through the dielectric, and the total
charge of the capacitor is zero.
• The electric field generated in the region.
• Capacitance is the capacity of capacitor to store
charge.
Time constant : the time required by capacitor to reach 63% of voltage
applied is called time constant or tor (T).
Where , T=Resistance x Capacitance.
T=R x C.
The value of T depends upon the value of capacitance. As capacitors
with higher capacitance will charge and discharge slowly as compare to
capacitors with low capacitance.
• Fully Charged?
After 5 Time constants capacitor will be
fully charge as voltage across capacitor
becomes same as voltage across battery.
Note: initially when voltage is applied the
capacitor will charge quickly till it reaches
62.3 % of voltage applied. After this point
charging will be much slower.
• Discharging
When the capacitor is discharging the
same CR formula applies, as the capacitor
also discharges in an exponential fashion,
quickly at first and then more slowly.
During discharge the voltage will FALL by
63.2% to 36.8% of its maximum value in
one time constant period T.
Circuit Diagram
Procedure

• CAPACITOR CHARGING:
Write down the procedure of constructing the circuit along with the use
of DMM and stop watch.

• Calculating Time Constant:

We know that, Time constant (T)= Resistance x Capacitance.
T= RC
Put the values in above equation to find Time constant.
 •Time constant (T) = ?
Results •Capacitor is fully charged at = 5 T

Sr. Voltage Time

No
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Procedure
• Capacitor Charging:
Write down the procedure of constructing the circuit along with the
use of DMM and stop watch.
• Calculating Time Constant:
We know that, Time constant (T)= Resistance x Capacitance.
T= RC
Put the values in above equation to find Time constant.
 •Time constant (T) = ?
Results •Capacitor is fully charged at = 5 T

Sr. Voltage Time

No
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Conclusion