Name: Thinh Nguyen

Capactors and RC Decay

PHYS1440L 803
Instructor: Emery Doucet
Date: 10/18/2016
Partners: Connor Whitford
A. Objective: Measuring the rate of discharging of capacitors in different setups:
two capacitors in parallel, in series and one capacitor. Understand the relationship
of the discharging rate of capacitors and resistors.

B. Introduction:

Capacitor:
Capacitor plays an important role in electric circuits. Capacitor is a device used to
store an electric charge, consisting of one or more pairs of conductors separated by
an insulator.
For capacitor made of one pair of conductors, one conductor will contain a charge of
Q and the other has a charge of -Q. The potential difference between the two
conductor plate is

V . The ratio of the charge Q to the potential difference

is called the capacitance C.

C=

Q
V

1)

In a circuits, one or more capacitors can be joined together. Two basic combinations
are parallel capacitors and series capacitors. Parallel or series capacitors can be
represented by a single equivalent capacitance
The equivalent capacitance of capacitors in series can be calculated as the equation
below:

1
1 1 1
= + +
C eq C 1 C2 C 3

Or

C eq=

C1C2C3
C1 +C 2+ C3

2)

Figure 1 Capacitors in series

The equivalent capacitance of capacitors in parallel can be calculated as the

equation below:

C eq=C 1+ C2 +C 3

3)

RC circuit:
An electric circuit composed of resistors and capacitors driven by a voltage or
current source is called an RC circuit.

Figure 2 RC circuit example

Figure 2 is an example of RC circuit. While the switch is open, the potential

difference of the capacitor C is

and there is no current flow in the circuit. As

we start to close the switch, the current start flowing through out the circuit, the
capacitor start being discharged and the

start decreasing. We are interesting

in the discharging rate of capacitor.

Capacitor discharging:
Recalling Kirchhoffs loop law:
Where

Vi

V loop = ( V )i=0

4)

is the potential difference of the ith component in the loop.

Consider the RC circuit in figure 2, when the switch is closed, we can apply
Kirchhoffs loop law to the circuit. We have:

IR+ V =0

As we learned in the previous chapter, current is the flow rate of charge through the
cross section of the wire.

I=

dQ
dt

C=

And

IR+ V =

We have:

Q
V

dQ
Q
R+ =0
dt
C

dQ
dt
=
Q RC
Integrate both side:

Q=H e

t
RC

(H is unknown

constant)
Using the condition that at t=0,

Q=Q 0

where

magnitude on each capacitors plate. We find

Q0

is the initial charge

H=Q0

The equation of the amount of charge on capacitor with respect to time is derived to
be as below:
t

Q=Q 0 e RC
The constant RC is defined as time constant

=RC

6)

The equation of the amount of charge on capacitor with respect to time can also be
expressed as:

Q=Q0 e

7)

Divide by C on both side, we obtain an equation of potential different cross

V =V 0 e

capacitor with respect to time:

8)
Take natural logarithms of both sides of equation:

ln V c =lnV 0

t
RmC1

9)

In the equation 9, the slope turns out to be

1
R mC 1

Voltmeter: In reality, there is resistance Rm in Voltmeter. In this experiment, we

will also take the small resistance Rm of Voltmeter into account.
C. Apparatus and Procedure:
List of equipment used: Power supply, Voltmeter, two capacitors with different
capacitance values: C1 (larger capacitor) and C2 (smaller capacitor), wire, switch,
stopwatch, resistor

R x =10 M .

Part A: Long time Constants

Measurement of Capacitance
i)

Connect the power supply, switch, capacitor as figure 3. Adjust the power
supply to 10V and close the switch. Make sure the Voltmeters reading
stays constant at a value which is close to 10V and the stopwatch is reset
to 0. Open the switch and press start on the stopwatch simultaneously.
When the Voltmeter reach to 3.68v, stop the stopwatch and put value on
stopwatch on Table I for t(s). Repeat this process to get enough three
trials and calculate the average value.

Figure 3 Step (i) Circuit arrangement

ii)

Now connect the external resistor

R x =10 M

into the circuit as figure 4.

Close the switch to charge the capacitor and repeat the procedure in step
i to measure the time constant t and fill it in the Table I. When three trials
of t is made, calculate the average value of t.

Figure 4 Step (ii) circuit arrangement

The equivalent resistance in this circuit can be calculated using parallel

R=

combination formula for resistors:

t' ' =

R x Rm
R x+ R m

Rx Rm
Rx
C 1=
t ' ( R m C 1=t ' )
Rx + Rm
R x+ R m
'

Thus , R m=

''

t t
Rx
t''

Use the average values of t and t to calculate Rm.

Then use Rm to calculate C1 using equation:

C1 =t ' '

Rx + R m
Rx Rm

iii)

Take out the external resistor Rx and replace the capacitor C1 to capacitor
C2 as figure 5

Figure 5 Step (iii) circuit arrangement

Repeat procedure of step i to find

of

t 2 . Make three trials and find the average value

t 2 . Calculate the capacitance C2 using equation:

iv)

Rm C2=t 2

Connect C1 and C2 in series as figure 6

Figure 6 Figure 5 Step (iv) circuit arrangement

Repeat step i procedure to measure the time constant

calculate
v)

C s=

ts
Rm

Connect C1 and C2 in parallel as figure 7

ts

average value and

Figure 7 Figure 5 Step (iv) circuit arrangement

Repeat step i procedure to measure the time constant

calculate

Cp=

tp

average value and

tp
Rm

Exponential Decay
i)

Set up the circuit as figure 3, using only capacitor C1. Close the switch to
charge the capacitor. Then open the switch and press start the stopwatch
simultaneously, this time cooperate with your partner to write down the
reading value of Voltmeter at 10 second interval until the voltage dropped
to 0.3V.

ii)

Plot the graph of

t 1 =R m C1

at

Vc

use it the calculate

Make a plot of
the slope =

vs time. Calculate 3 values of time constant using

V c =3.68V,

at

t 3 =3 R m C 1

Vc

t 2 =2 R m C 1 at

V c = 1.35V and

=0.5V. Find the average value of time constant and

C1 .

ln V c vs time , and calculate the capacitance

C1

1
R m C 1 . Compare the value with previous measurement.
D. Result and Analysis:

i= 0.01 A

Uncertainty:

using

V =0.1 V
Table 1 Measurement of Capacitance
Trial

t(s)

t(s)

t2 ( s )

t s( s )

1
2
3
Average

110.83
151.8
110.61
110.33

56
55
56
55.67

45
45
44
44.67

34
34
33
33.67

t p ( s)
152
153
154
153

Rm=9.82 M ,C 1=11.25 F ; C 2=4.55 F ; Cs =3.43 F ; C p =15.58 F

Table 2 Measurement of exponential decay RC

t(sec)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130

V(volts)
9.86
9.01
8.15
7.38
6.72
6.11
5.57
5.10
4.67
4.29
3.96
3.66
3.39
3.14

t(sec)
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
260
270

V(volts)
2.96
2.74
2.54
2.35
2.18
2.02
1.88
1.75
1.62
1.51
1.41
1.31
1.22
1.13

t(sec)
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
350
390
487

V(volts)
1.06
0.99
0.92
0.86
0.81
0.76
0.71
0.65
0.51
0.30

Vc vs time
12
10
8

Vc (Volts)

f(x) = 8.59 exp( -0.01 x )

6
4
2
0

100

200

300

Time (second)

400

500

600

Using the trend line,

t 1 =R m C1=110 s ; t 2=2 Rm C1=245 s ; t 3=3 Rm C1=390 s

Rm=9.82 M
C1 =

t1
Rm

11.2
(

F )
C1 =

t2
2 Rm (

12.47

F )

C1 =

t3
3 Rm (

13.24

F )
Average

12.3

C1 ( F )

lnVc vs time
2.5
f(x) = - 0.01x + 2.29

2
1.5
1

lnVc

0.5
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

-0.5
-1
-1.5

time (second)

Slope =

1
R mC 1

C1 =

1
1
=
=12.84
Rm slope 9.86 (0.0079 )

E. Discussion:
The time constant in step ii, iii and iv is smaller than that in step i and v, so the
discharging rate in step ii, iii and iv is much faster. Notice in step i and ii, after

placing the external resistor in the circuit, the time constant RC does not increase,
however, it decreases significantly. The reason the time constant decrease is
because the external resistor is placed parallel with the resistor inside Voltmeter. As
we learned in previous lab, the equivalence resistance in parallel resistors is smaller
than any of resistors were put in the circuit.
As for the time constant in step iv and v,

ts

is much less than

t p . Though both

circuit contains the same capacitors, the setup makes the big difference in
equivalence capacitance. When two capacitors are connected parallel, the
equivalence capacitance is the sum of

C1 C2 , which makes the time constant

larger than when there is only C1 or C2 alone in the circuit. However, when C1 and
C2 are connected in series, the equivalence capacitance is smaller than both C1 and
C2. Thus, two capacitors connect in series make the discharging rate of capacitor
increases.
In exponential decay part, at t= 0, V =9.86V instead of 10V which is supplied
through the circuit. The reason the reading value of Voltmeter is slightly under 10V
is because there is a little resistance in the wire. The initial V is different from 10V
can cause a small error in calculating C1 in the end.
The two values of C1 using plotting method is little off from each other, this small
error is because we did not draw the trend line perfectly on both graph.
F. Conclusion:
Measuring the rate of discharging of capacitors in different setups: two capacitors in
parallel, in series and one capacitor. Understand the relationship of the discharging
rate of capacitors and resistors.
The discharging rate of capacitors depends on its equivalence capacitance, the
equivalence resistance in the circuit.
G. Question:
1. An RC circuit has a resistance of 20 M

and a time constant of 100 sec. If the

capacitor is charged to a voltage of 10v, what is the charge in coulombs on its

plates?

time constant=RC=100 s

C=

100
=5 F
20
6

Q=C V =5 10 10=50 C
2. A charged 1 F

capacitor is connected in parallel with a 1 M

resistor. How

long after the connection is made will the capacitor voltage drop to a)50%, b)10%,
and c)2% of its initial value?
RC=1s

a.

0.5 V 0=V 0 et /1

0.5=et

t=ln ( 0.5 )=0.69 s

b.

0.1 V 0=V 0 et /1

0.1=et

t=ln 0.1=2.3 s
c.

0.02V 0=V 0 et /1

0.02=et

t=ln 0.02=3.91 s
3. How many 1 F

capacitors would need to be connected in parallel in order to

store a charge of 1 coulomb with a potential of 200 volts across the capacitors?

C eq=

Q
1
=
=0.005 F=5000 F
V 200

# of capacitor

5000
=5000 capacitors
1