RC Circuits lab Report 2021

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Introduction In this experiment, the properties of RC circuits, i.e. circuits with both resistors and capacitors, as well as the charging and discharging of capacitors, were explored over the course... of three investigations. A capacitor is a device consisting of two conducting plates, and is used for storing charge, with a positive charge +Q stored on one plate, and an equal but opposite charge -Q store on the other. There is a potential difference of V between the plates. A property of every capacitor is capacitance C, which is a constant that represents how much charge the capacitor stores per unit of potential difference between its plates. Charge, capacitance, and potential difference are related by the following, ?? = ???? (1). When a discharged capacitor is connected to power supply along with a resistor, current will flow to the capacitor but will be limited by the resistor until the capacitor is fully charged. Investigation 1 aimed to study charging a capacitor by observing the voltage drop across a resistor connected in series. By taking interval measurements of voltage across the resistor over the course of several minutes, the change in capacitor voltage over time was indirectly observed. Starting a t = 0 with an uncharged capacitor, charge on a capacitor as a function of time is given as [Show More]

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