BHOLANANDA NATIONAL

VIDYALAYA
55 & 56 BARRACK ROAD, BARRACKPORE, KOLKATA - 700120

A.I.S.S.C.E. PHYSICS PROJECT WORK

CHARGING AND DISCHARGING OF A
CAPACITOR

NAME: DIVIT SARKAR

CLASS: XII SECTION: SCIENCE-D
BOARD ROLL NO: ____________
YEAR: 2019-2020
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CERTIFICATE OF EFFORT

This is to certify that DIVIT SARKAR of Class XII, Sec. D

(Science) of Bholananda National Vidyalaya has successfully
completed the Physics project titled "CHARGING AND
DISCHARGING OF A CAPACITOR" in partial fulfilment
of the curriculum of ALL INDIA SENIOR SECONDARY
EXAM (CBSE). This project was carried out in the school
laboratory during the academic year 2019-2020.

Mr. Abdul Moid Mrs. Swati Rudra

(Internal Examiner) (Principal)

(External Examiner)
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Acknowledgement

I, Divit Sarkar of class XII-D (Science) express my gratitude to

my school authorities for allowing me to undertake the project
titled Charging and Discharging of a Capacitor.

I naturally could not have done justice to my delicate assignment,

had I not been privileged to get the animate guidance from Mr.
Abdul Moid, Physics teacher of Bholananda National Vidyalaya.

I also express sincere thanks to my parents and friends who

extended their helping hand in completing this project.

Divit Sarkar

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Table of Contents
Sl. No. Contents : Page No.
1. Acknowledgement 3
2. Aim of the Project 5
3. Introduction 6-7
4. Materials Required 8
5. Theory 9-12
6. Procedure 13-15
7. Observations 16-19
8. Calculations 20
9. Conclusion and References 21

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Aim of the Project:

To verify that 63% charge is stored in a capacitor in an

R-C circuit at its time constant and 63% charge remains
when capacitor is discharged and hence plotting a graph
between voltage and time.

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Introduction
An R-C circuit is a circuit containing a resistor and capacitor in series to
a power source. Such circuits find very important applications in various
areas of science and in basic circuits which act as building blocks of
modern technological devices. It should be really helpful if we get
comfortable with the terminologies charging and discharging of
capacitors.

 Charging of Capacitor-
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to
store energy in an electric field. In the hydraulic analogy, charge
carriers flowing through a wire are analogous to water flowing through
a pipe. A capacitor is like a rubber membrane sealed inside a pipe.
Water molecules cannot pass through the membrane, but some water
can move by stretching the membrane. The analogy clarifies a few
aspects of capacitors:

1. The flow of current alters the charge on a capacitor, just as the

flow of water changes the position of the membrane. More
specifically, the effect of an electric current is to increase the
charge of one plate of the capacitor, and decrease the charge of
the other plate by an equal amount. This is just like how, when
water flow moves the rubber membrane, it increases the amount
of water on one side of the membrane, and decreases the amount
of water on the other side.
2. The more a capacitor is charged, the larger its voltage drop;
i.e., the more it "pushes back" against the charging current. This is
analogous to the fact that the more a membrane is stretched, the
more it pushes back on the water.

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 3. Current can flow "through" a capacitor even though no
individual electron can get from one side to the other. This is
analogous to the fact that water can flow through the pipe even
though no water molecule can pass through the rubber
membrane. Of course, the flow cannot continue the same
direction forever; the capacitor will experience dielectric
breakdown, and analogously the membrane will eventually break.
4. The capacitance describes how much charge can be stored on one
plate of a capacitor for a given "push" (voltage drop).
A very stretchy, flexible membrane corresponds to a higher
capacitance than a stiff membrane.
5. A charged-up capacitor is storing potential energy, analogously to
a stretched membrane.

 Discharging of capacitor-
Using hydraulic analogy only we can understand that when the
capacitor is charged the membrane is stretched, but now if you allow
the water to come out slowly and let the membrane relax, then it is
called discharging of capacitor. In other words, when the charge on
each of the plates becomes zero and the potential difference across its
terminals drops to zero. Below is a graphical description of capacitor as
a pipe with a membrane: -
 relaxed membrane (uncharged)

 Stretched membrane (charged)

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Materials Required
 Breadboard

 100μF capacitor

 1 MΩ resistor

 Multi-meter

 9 Volt battery

 Wire stripper

 Connecting wires

 Battery connector

 Stopwatch

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THEORY
When a capacitor of capacitance C is connected in series with a resistor of
resistance R and then connected to a battery of EMF E it gets charged but since
some resistance has been introduced, this charging process takes some time and
hence the potential difference between the plates of the capacitor varies as an
exponential function of time, i.e.

V α e x.t

The circuit diagram for this experiment is given below: -

Applying Kirchhoff’s law in the above circuit during charging, i.e.

capacitor is connected to the battery

E - Vc – iR = 0…………….. (i)
Vc = QC
Putting above value in eq. (i)

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 E – QC – iR = 0
Since,

i=
Therefore,
E – QC – R=0

E – QC = R

EC - Q = RC
Integrating both sides,

∫ =∫

= ……………. (ii)

=
Hence we get,

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Since EC= Qmax for a capacitor.
Therefore,

……………….. (iii)

Also Q=CV and Qmax=CVmax, where V and Vmax are voltage at time t
and max voltage respectively
Therefore, from eq. (iii),

CV =CVmax (1 )
V =Vmax (1 )
This is the required expression.

[NOTE: - This is the charging equation only, for discharging equation

proceed the same way but only remove E from Kirchhoff law’s
equation]

Thus equation for discharging,

V =Vmax ( )

When RC=t, then equation becomes,

V=Vmax (1 )
Which on solving gives V=0.63Vmax
i.e. the voltage on capacitor at time t=RC becomes 63% of the max
voltage, which means 63% of total charge has been stored in the
capacitor.
This product of R and C has been given a new name, i.e. time constant
and is denoted by τ, which means for any capacitor in

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RC circuit 63% of total charge is stored at time constant. In my
experiment I have used a 100μF capacitor and a 1MΩ resistor thus time
constant = 100×10-6×106=100 sec.

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PROCEDURE

1. Connect all the components in the breadboard as shown in

the following picture:

Components connected to the Breadboard

2. Now take multi-meter leads and place them in the two

terminals shaped like pins.
3. Before proceeding further we must have a bit of
knowledge about breadboard. A breadboard is a simple
circuit building device used to build temporary circuits just
to test their working. It is very simple to work with as it
does not require any soldering or attachment of
components. The components could be just pushed in the
holes and connections could be made easily. A straight line

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 is a pattern of holes that resembles a wire and the
arrangement of these holes is shown below:

4. Now take the battery and connect its terminals across the
terminals of the capacitor and start the stop watch. Note
the readings at 20 seconds intervals and write them down.

[NOTE: Reading the previous statement could be

astonishing as it says that measure voltage at 20sec
interval but one could question that current move at very
high speed so how could one measure the changing
readings! But believe me it wasn’t an easy task but since
the voltage depends on reciprocal of exponential function
and as time passes by the changing readings will get

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 slowed down and even after infinite time the capacitor
could not be charged up to max voltage. Also since its time
constant is 100 sec which is quite practical to measure at
and hence this experiment is very much justified]

Take 10 readings and if required the 20sec gap could be

increased because as the time passes by the change in
voltage becomes smaller and smaller.
5. Now let the capacitor be charged up to 460 seconds
because then it will become 99.99% charged [since we
have a limited time and we can’t wait for infinite time for
it to charge completely]. Now remove the battery and now
attach a wire in place of the battery terminals and again
note the multi-meter readings changing and record them.
6. Plot a graph between voltage and time for charging as
well as discharging.

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 Observations
READINGS:
Sl. No. Multi-meter Reading Multi-meter Reading Time (in
while Charging: (Volts) while Discharging: (Volts) Seconds)
1 0 8.95 0
2 1.65 7.34 20

3 3.02 6.00 40

4 4.11 4.91 60

5 4.90 4.03 80

6 5.69 3.30 100

7 6.72 2.21 120

8 7.00 1.54 140

9 8.12 0.74 250

10 8.40 0.43 300

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Graph:-

Plot of voltage v/s time

Time on x-axis and voltage on y-axis

Charging of Capacitor:

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Voltage (in Volts)

Multi-meter Reading
3 while Charging:

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 250 300
TIme (in Seconds)

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Discharging of Capacitor:

10

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Voltage (in Volts)

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Multi-meter Reading while
4 Discharging: (Volts)

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 250 300

TIme (in Seconds)

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The original graphs for discharging and charging respectively
are:

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Calculations:
Now since the graphs are very much similar to the graphs of charging
and discharging of capacitor. At τ=100sec, during charging of capacitor
the voltage on capacitor is 5.69 volt as it is observed in the experiment.
Now using the charging formula: -

V =Vmax ( )
V = 9[ ]

V = 5.67 5.69 which is achieved experimentally as well.

Similarly, during discharging,

V=9(e 1)

V=3.32 3.30 which is achieved experimentally as well.

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Conclusion and References:

Conclusion:

Hence it is verified experimentally that 63% charge is there on

capacitor after time constant during charging and 63% charge is
lost at time constant during discharging.

References:

 google.co.in
 en.wikipedia.org
 Concepts of Physics (Part 2) by H.C. Verma
 This project is completely created with the help of
Microsoft Word 2010 and the graphs, equations and
observation tables are also created with the help of the
same.

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