Lab #6 Capacitance & RC Circuits

Portions of this activity adapted from Vernier

Objectives: To examine the charging and discharging behavior of capacitors in RC circuits

Materials: Circuit board with resistor and capacitor, 2 D-cell batteries, Vernier digital voltage probe, DMM,
connecting wires, computer with LabPro software.
Introduction: Capacitance A capacitor is a circuit element that stores electric charge. It consists of two
conducting plates separated from one another. The simplest type of capacitor is the parallel plate capacitor,
which consists of two metal plates of area A separated by a distance d. When a voltage difference V is applied
across these two plates, positive charge Q will accumulate on one plate, and negative charge –Q will
accumulate on the other. The magnitude of Q depends on the values of V, A, d, and the material (such as air or
another substance) between the plates. Since A, d, and the material between the plates are all physical properties
of the capacitor, it is convenient to combine them into a single parameter C, called capacitance which describes
a given capacitor’s ability to store charge. The SI unit of Capacitance is the farad (F). One farad = 1
coulomb/volt. The farad is a very large unit of capacitance, so most capacitors have capacitances much less
than 1 F. More common values of capacitance will be in the microfarad (µF = 10-6F), nanofarad (nF = 10-9 F) or
picofarad (pF = 10-12 F) range.

RC circuits In an ideal capacitor, whenever a change is made in the voltage applied across the capacitor, the
charge on the capacitor changes instantaneously in response. That is because an ideal capacitor contains no
resistance. In a real circuit, some resistance will always be present. Thus the charge on the capacitor would take
time to reach equilibrium after a change was made to the circuit, because only a finite current would be able to
flow. In this activity, we will examine a circuit with both resistance and capacitance (an RC circuit) and see
how the charge on the capacitor changes as a function of time.
If a capacitor of capacitance C (in farads), initially charged to a potential V0 (volts) is connected across a
resistor R (in ohms), a time-dependent current will flow. This situation is shown by the RC circuit below.
When the switch is connecting points 32 and 33, the battery is in the circuit and the capacitor will be charged
to the battery voltage. When the switch is moved so that it connects points 33 and 34, the capacitor will
discharge by causing current to flow through the resistor.

Figure 1 (from Vernier)

As the current flows, the charge q is depleted, reducing the potential across the capacitor, which in turn
reduces the current. This process creates an exponentially decreasing voltage V across the capacitor given by:

(eq. 1)
where t is time. The rate of the decrease is determined by the product RC, known as the time constant of the
circuit. A large time constant means that the capacitor will discharge slowly.

In contrast, when the capacitor is charged, the potential across it approaches the final value exponentially,
modeled by

(eq. 2)
The same time constant, RC, describes the rate of charging as well as discharging.

Procedure
Measuring Capacitance
1. Using the DMM, measure the capacitance of capacitor C1 on your circuit board (use the dial setting
usually marked “C”, “CAP”, or a capacitor symbol) a)when you are NOT touching the wires of the
DMM and b) when you are touching the wires of the DMM (one with each hand.)
2. Using the DMM, measure the resistance of resistor R9 (~100kΩ) on your circuit board a) when you are
not touching the wires, and b) b) when you are touching the wires of the DMM (one with each hand.)
3. Gripping one DMM wire with each hand, measure the capacitance of each person in your lab group.
Record the value for the person in the group with the largest capacitance. Note: the capacitance of a
person is used in applications such as some touch-screens and safety shut-off switches.
4. Gripping one DMM wire with each hand, measure the resistance of each person in your lab group.
Record the resistance of the person with the smallest resistance. (If the DMM reads “OL” or a “1” with
no units, it means that the resistance is too high for the DMM to measure, usually more than a few MΩ.)

RC circuit
1. Wire the circuit shown in Figure 1, using two D-cell batteries as the power supply, and the differential
voltage probe to measure the voltage across the capacitor. Put switch SW1 in the SPDT position. Put
switch SW2 in the position closest to point 32 on your circuit board. This includes the battery in the
circuit in Figure 1.
2. Open the file in the “24 Capacitors” file in the Physics with Vernier folder.

3. Set Switch 2, SW2, to charge the capacitor for 10 seconds (so the switch is closer to terminal 32). Watch
the voltage reading to see if the potential is still increasing.

4. Click to begin data collection. As soon as graphing starts, flip Switch 2 to discharge the
capacitor. Your data shows a constant value initially, then a decreasing function.

5. To compare your data to the model, select only the data after the potential has started to decrease by
clicking and dragging across the curved portion of the graph; that is, omit the constant portions on either
end of the discharge cycle. Click Curve Fit, , and from the function selection box, choose the Natural
Exponent function,

(eq. 3)

. Click , and inspect the fit. Click .

6. Record the value of the fit parameters in your data table. Notice that the C used in the curve fit is not the
same as the C representing capacitance. Compare the fit equation to the mathematical model for a
capacitor discharge proposed in the introduction, eq. 1.
7. Unfortunately, the software automatically calls the fit constant “C”, but it is not the capacitance of the
circuit. Look at the fit function equation 3 side-by-side with equation 1. How is fit constant C related to
the time constant of the circuit, which was defined in the introduction? Show how you determined the
units of the fitting parameters by comparison with equation 1.

8. Print or sketch the graph of potential vs. time. Choose Store Latest Run from the Experiment menu to
store your data. You will need the data for later analysis.

9. The capacitor is now discharged. To monitor the charging process, click . As soon as data
collection begins, change Switch 2 so the capacitor charges. Allow data collection to run to completion.

10. This time you will compare your data to the mathematical model for a capacitor charging, eq. 2.
11. Select the data beginning after the potential has started to increase, omitting portions on either end of the
charge cycle. Click Curve Fit, , and from the function selection box, choose the Inverse Exponent
function, . Check the time offset curve fit box. Click and inspect the fit.
Click to return to the main graph.

12. Record the value of the fit parameters in your data table. Compare the fit equation to the mathematical
model for a charging capacitor.

13. Hide your first runs by choosing Hide Data Set from the Data menu. Remove any remaining fit
information by clicking the upper left corner in the floating boxes.

14. Now you will repeat the experiment with a resistor of lower value. Rebuild your circuit using the 47 kΩ
resistor and repeat Steps 3–10.
 Lab #6 Capacitance & RC Circuits
Data Sheet & Questions
Measuring Capacitance
1. Measured value of C1 a) when not touching ________ b) when touching __________
2. Measured value of R9 a) when not touching ________ b) when touching __________
3. Measured value of capacitance for person in group with highest capacitance __________
4. Measured value of resistance for person in group with smallest resistance __________

Discharging and Charging Capacitor

Measured
Fit parameters (include units) value of Time constant % error
Resistor
R
Trial A B C 1/C Expect. Meas.
(Ω)
Discharge 1

Charge 1

Discharge 2

Charge 2

Determination of units of fitting parameters:

Questions:
1. Discuss the sources of error in this experiment. Which ones do you think are most significant? Do you
think these sources of error are sufficient to explain the % Difference you obtained between the expected
and measured values of RC?
2. How did the decay time of the RC circuit change when you changed the resistance of the resistor? Does
this agree with the theoretical prediction? Explain.

3. How would you expect the decay time of the RC circuit to change if you increased the voltage of the
battery? Explain.

4. We have called RC a time constant even though R has units of ohms and C has units of farads. Show
that an ohm-farad actually is a second. (Hint: you will need to go back to how the ohm and the farad are
originally defined, to see what units they are made up of. For example, V = IR so an ohm is actually a
Volt/Ampere)

5. You learned that people have a measureable capacitance and it is therefore important to avoid touching
the wires when measuring capacitance of a circuit. Would the effect of a person’s touch be bigger when
measuring a small capacitance, or a large one? Explain your answer by referring to the rules for adding
capacitance in series and parallel.

6. When measuring resistance, does touching the wires during the measurement have an effect on the
measurement? Under what conditions would you expect this effect to be significant? Explain your
answer by referring to the rules for adding resistances in series and parallel.