Report on the charging and

discharging of a capacitor
EEP P4&P5

Ryan Farrow S42








Ryan Farrow S42 EEP P4& P5

2
22/11/2012
Contents
Introduction 3
Charging and Discharging Capacitors 3
Calculations and Graphs 6
Conclusions 6
Bibliography 7
Graphs 9












Ryan Farrow S42 EEP P4& P5

3
22/11/2012
Introduction
This report is on the experiment I performed to measure how the voltage and current
varied in a charging and a discharging capacitor. I will do this by explaining the
characteristics and construction of capacitors, and then I will record the results of my
experiment on a graph and use this to gain the time constant and voltage at time
constant values. I will then do calculations to work out the theoretical values so I can
compare how they differ from my recorded values.
Charging and Discharging Capacitors
The basic construction of a capacitor is two plates of metal separated by an
insulating material, called a dielectric. When a potential difference is put across the
two plates, electrons build up on the negative plate (side connected to the negative
terminal of the battery). This is built up charge. When the potential difference is then
taken away, the electrons start flowing back through the discharge path, causing
current to flow while the capacitor discharges
(1)
.
There are many different types of capacitor, which are categorised by what material
the dielectric (insulating material) is made from. Examples of different types of
capacitors are paper, electrolytic & variable.
A paper capacitor uses paper as its dielectric and is usually impregnated with wax to
prevent it from being damaged by moisture. They usually range from 300pF to 4F
and do not usually exceed a voltage rating of 600v
(2)
. They are usually found in old
radios and cars because of they were cheap and not polarized, meaning that they
would not be damaged by sparks or current going through the other way.
Ryan Farrow S42 EEP P4& P5

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22/11/2012
Electrolytic capacitors are made with aluminium foil with are coated with an
insulating oxide layer and an electrolyte as its other plate. Electrolytic capacitors are
polarized; meaning current can only flow one way, and are mainly used in power
supplies because of their very high capacitance.
(3)
Variable capacitors are made by using air as the dielectric and then either changing
the distance between the plates to alter the capacitance or by changing the area that
the plates overlap. This is either done mechanically or can be done electrically.
These are mainly used in tuning circuits in equipment such as radios to select the
resonant frequency.
The charging circuit of my capacitor experiment is shown below;




Ryan Farrow S42 EEP P4& P5

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22/11/2012
The discharging circuit is shown below;

To measure the charging of the capacitor, I switched on the power supply and a
stopwatch. I then took readings of the voltage across the capacitor and the current
going through the circuit every 20 seconds.
To measure the discharging of the capacitor, I disconnected the power supply and
replaced it with a wire, and then measured the voltage across the capacitor and
current going through the circuit at 20 second intervals using a stopwatch whilst it
discharges. The results can be seen on the attached sheet.
Difficulties in getting precise results where inaccuracies in the time intervals and the
rate at which the voltage and current changed, meaning that then 20 seconds was
called, it was hard to get a precise reading of the voltage or current at 20 seconds.
Also, the tolerance of the capacitor and resistor means that the time constant might
be a bit off.

Ryan Farrow S42 EEP P4& P5

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22/11/2012
Calculations and Graphs
The time constant is equal to the capacitance x the resistance so;

The voltage at the theoretical TC is;

) (

)
Maximum circuit current;

These can be seen on the attached graphs on page 9.
If an additional resistor is added to the discharge path of the capacitor, the time
constant will increase as the time taken for the capacitor to discharge will be longer.
This is because it would then have to push the current through a bigger resistance,
resulting in a smaller current flowing through the circuit. This would then mean the
capacitor lasts longer.
Conclusions
The capacitor was found to charge and discharge at the same rate exponentially with
a time constant of 18 seconds, reaching its maximum charge at 180 seconds. When
the capacitor is charging, the current is shown positive on my graph as the current is
flowing from the positive terminal of the battery. The current is shown negative when
the capacitor is discharging as the current is then flowing the other way through the
resistor, so I represented this by plotting it on the negative axis.
Ryan Farrow S42 EEP P4& P5

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22/11/2012
From looking at the graphs, the time constant was 2 seconds lower than my
theoretical value of 20 seconds, proving that was fairly accurate, but the theoretical
voltage at the time constant of 5.87 volts was much higher (1.1v) than the one on my
graph. This could be due to the tolerance levels of the resistor or capacitor, making
the capacitance higher and the resistor making it charge up slower than it should be.
The measured maximum current of 900A is also lower than the 969A theoretical
value for the current. This would be due to timing delays of reading off the ammeter
and also the fact that the ammeter takes time to display a reading, so by the time its
measuring it the current has decreased.

Bibliography
1. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/capacitor1.htm
2. http://www.sayedsaad.com/fundmental/14_Fixed%20Capacitor.htm
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor#Construction

Ryan Farrow S42 EEP P4& P5

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22/11/2012
Above is a print screen showing the search results of my search for information on
paper capacitors.