4
Capacitive Reactance
Objective
Capacitive reactance will be examined in this exercise. In particular, its relationship to capacitance and
frequency will be investigated, including a plot of capacitive reactance versus frequency.
Theory Overview
The current – voltage characteristic of a capacitor is unlike that of typical resistors. While resistors show a
constant resistance value over a wide range of frequencies, the equivalent ohmic value for a capacitor,
known as capacitive reactance, is inversely proportional to frequency. The capacitive reactance may be
computed via the formula:
Xc j 1
2fC
The magnitude of capacitive reactance may be determined experimentally by feeding a capacitor a known
current, measuring the resulting voltage, and dividing the two, following Ohm’s law. This process may
be repeated a across a range of frequencies in order to obtain a plot of capacitive reactance versus
frequency. An AC current source may be approximated by placing a large resistance in series with an AC
voltage, the resistance being considerably larger than the maximum reactance expected.
Equipment
(1) AC function generator model: srn:
(1) Oscilloscope model: srn:
Components
(1) 1 µF actual:
(1) 2.2 µF actual:
(1) 10 k actual:
Schematics
Figure 4.1
Procedure
Current Source
1. Using figure 4.1 with Vin=10 V p-p and R=10 k, and assuming that the reactance of the capacitor
is much smaller than 10k and can be ignored, determine the circulating current using measured
component values and record in Table 4.1.
Measuring Reactance
2. Build the circuit of figure 4.1 using R=10 k, and C=1 µF. Place one probe across the generator
and another across the capacitor. Set the generator to a 200 Hz sine wave and 10 V p-p. Make sure
that the Bandwidth Limit of the oscilloscope is engaged for both channels. This will reduce the
signal noise and make for more accurate readings.
3. Calculate the theoretical value of Xc using the measured capacitor value and record in Table 4.2.
4. Record the peak-to-peak capacitor voltage and record in Table 4.2.
5. Using the source current from Table 4.1 and the measured capacitor voltage, determine
the experimental reactance and record it in Table 4.2. Also compute and record the
deviation.
6. Repeat steps three through five for the remaining frequencies of Table 4.2.
7. Replace the 1 µF capacitor with the 2.2 µF unit and repeat steps two through six, recording results
in Table 4.3.
8. Using the data of Tables 4.2 and 4.3, create plots of capacitive reactance versus frequency.
Data Tables
isource (p-p)
Table 4.1
Frequency XC Theory VC(p-p) Exp XC Exp % Dev
200
400
600
800
1.0 k
1.2 k
1.6 k
2.0 k
Table 4.2
Frequency XC Theory VC(p-p) Exp XC Exp % Dev
200
400
600
800
1.0 k
1.2 k
1.6 k
2.0 k
Table 4.3
Questions
1. What is the relationship between capacitive reactance and frequency?
2. What is the relationship between capacitive reactance and capacitance?
3. If the experiment had been repeated with frequencies 10 times higher than those in
Table 4.2, what would the resulting plots look like?
4. If the experiment had been repeated with frequencies 10 times lower than those in
Table 4.2, what effect would that have on the experiment?
