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RC Time Constant

The document investigates the RC time constant of a circuit containing a resistor and capacitor. It begins by explaining the theory behind how voltage varies across a capacitor as a function of time and current. It then describes using two methods - calculating based on component values and measuring the voltage decay gradient on an oscilloscope - to determine the RC time constant of a 50kΩ resistor and 20μF capacitor circuit. The calculations find an RC time constant of 1s using component values, and 0.97s with an uncertainty of 9.14x10-4s using the oscilloscope method. This shows the oscilloscope method is more accurate. The document concludes it has investigated how voltage varies

Uploaded by

Junaid Ahmad
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
697 views

RC Time Constant

The document investigates the RC time constant of a circuit containing a resistor and capacitor. It begins by explaining the theory behind how voltage varies across a capacitor as a function of time and current. It then describes using two methods - calculating based on component values and measuring the voltage decay gradient on an oscilloscope - to determine the RC time constant of a 50kΩ resistor and 20μF capacitor circuit. The calculations find an RC time constant of 1s using component values, and 0.97s with an uncertainty of 9.14x10-4s using the oscilloscope method. This shows the oscilloscope method is more accurate. The document concludes it has investigated how voltage varies

Uploaded by

Junaid Ahmad
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RC Time Constant

Aim: To investigate how the voltage across a resistor and a capacitor combination varies as
a function of time.

Theory: A capacitor can store electric charge. If the capacitor has a capacitance C and a
voltage V is applied across the capacitor the amount of charge stored by the capacitor Q is
given by:
Q=CV

At a time t the voltage is given by V ( t ) =I ( t ) R. For a current at a time t across a capacitor is:
Q(t)
I ( t )=
RC

Time constant for voltage decay across a capacitor is T =RC

Methodology: Determine the RC time constant of a resistor capacitor combination using


several methods.
Resistor is in parallel (2x100KΩ), so the total resistance 50kΩ. The capacitance of the two
parallel capacitors is measured to be 20µF (2x10µF).
For the second method, use an oscilloscope connected to the circuit shown below.

O = Voltmeter
T R T = Top switch
B C C = Capacitors
B = Battery
R = Resistor

Calculations:

Using the time constant equation T =RC we get T = (20x10-6 F) x (50x103 Ω) = 1s

1
From our graph of the linear voltage against time, we can use m= to can calculate the
RC
time constant, where RC time constant and m is the gradient from the trendline of our
graph:
1 1
RC = = =0.97 s
m (−1.0358)

Junaid Ahmad
The uncertainty in our gradient can be worked out from:
∆m 1−R 2
m
=
√ n−2

Where n equals 2250 (readings) and R2 equals 0.998


1−(0.998)2
∆m
m
=
√
2250−2
∆ m ∆ RC
=9.43 ×1 0−4

=
m RC

∆ RC
=9.43 ×1 0−4
RC

Method 2: RC = 0.97 (± 9.14x10-4) s

Method 1: 1(±0.04) s (2% uncertainty per capacitor = 4%)

Analysis/Discussion:
From the results above we can deduce that method 2 is reasonably close to what we
predicted after having a value to compare with from method 1. Also the uncertainty is much
lower than the first method hence the result is much more accurate than method 1.

Conclusion:
In conclusion we have investigated the behaviour of voltage across a resistor and capacitor
combination varies as a function of time.

Junaid Ahmad

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