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Brian Severino

With: Chris St. John, Tom Cooley

General Physics 151 Mr. Burtt March 16, 2007 Laboratory #8


RC DISCHARGE 1

OBJECTIVE:
You will be determining the capacitance of a capacitor by discharging it through a resistor. When a capacitor is charged to a certain voltage across its conducting plates (or charge), it can be discharged by connecting a resistor (or even just a wire) between those plates. The larger the resistance the longer it takes to discharge to a certain fraction of its original charge. Also, the greater the capacitance of the capacitor, the more time it takes to discharge. One can thus determine the capacitance by measuring the time constant of discharge, a measure of the rate of discharge. The time constant is (t = R * C) the product of the capacitance and resistance. In the time equal to one time constant, the voltage (or charge) drops to 1/e (36.8%) of its original value. By taking data f voltage across the capacitor versus time, you can determine the time constant and then calculate the capacitance as it discharges: C = t / R.

Sketch:

Theory:
Capacitance is a measure of the amount of electric charge stored (or separated) for a given electric potential.

In a capacitor, there are two conducting electrodes which are insulated from one another. The charge on the electrodes is +Q and -Q, and V represents the potential difference between the electrodes. The time constant usually denoted by the Greek letter , (tau), characterizes the frequency response of a first-order, linear timeinvariant (LTI) system. Examples include electrical RC circuits and RL circuits. Similarly, in an RC circuit, the time constant (in seconds) is: where R is the resistance (in ohms) and C is the capacitance (in farads).

Data/Analysis:
Sample Calculations:

Conclusion:
After charging the capacitor to a max voltage of 7.64 volts we discharged it through 10000 ohm resistor and measured the voltage as it as discharged. From the data we generated we graphed voltage vs. time and the ln(V) vs. Time. The slope of the time graph was equal to -1/t which T=300. the graph outcome was very close to what we expected (1/.0031). The V vs. T graph was used to find the point where 37% of the original voltage still remained. A simple calculation shows this original voltage to be 2.81 volts and from the formula we derived we expected this value to occur after 1 time constant of 300 seconds has expired. We found in reality our test showed this occurred a little bit after 300 seconds (about 305). The only sourced of error in this lab is that we had to start over because we took data in too long amount of time. Every 30 seconds instead of every 5 seconds. Also the resistor might not have been exactly 10000 ohms. Also the graph showed small inconsistencies in the data where the voltage may have changed slightly differently than our results would demonstrate.

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