6-10 RC circuit

1. Purpose
To determine and measure the time constant for charging and discharging a capacitor connected in
series to the resistor.

2. Basic theory
Capacitors are used in many modern electronic devices (computers, cellular phones, TV, etc.), since
they can store electric energy. A capacitor typically has two parallel metal plates separated by a
distance d. The area between the plates may be filled with a dielectric material. If the voltage V is
applied between the plates, charge Q is stored in the capacitor (Q on one plate and –Q on the other).
The magnitude of charge Q is proportional to the voltage difference V between the two plates. The
proportionality constant C is called the electric capacity of the capacitor. The relation is
Q = CV (1)
The unit of charge Q is coulomb (C), the unit of voltage is volt (V), and the unit of capacitance C
is farad (F). Therefore, 1 F = 1 coulomb/volt (C/V). The magnitude of capacitance used in the
electronic devices is usually within the range of 1 μF (= 10-6 F) to 1 pF (= 10-12 F) since the
capacitance of 1 F is a very large quantity.

1) Capacitors in series and parallel connection

If two capacitors are connected in series or parallel as shown in Figure 1, the equivalent capacitance
is given by:
1 1 1
= + [series connection] (2)
C equiv C1 C 2

and
C equiv = C1 + C 2 [parallel connection] (3)
 Figure 1. Capacitors in series and in parallel

2) Charging the capacitor

Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of series connection of a capacitor and a resistor. If the switch S
is connected to a, the capacitor is being charged. If the switch S is connected to d, the capacitor is
being discharged. For the charging process, the Kirchhoff’s loop rule may be written as:
Q
V0 − VR − VC = V0 − iR − = 0, (4)
C
where VR is the potential difference across the resistor, VC is the potential difference across the
capacitor, Q is the charge on the capacitor and V0 is the applied potential by the battery.

Figure 2. The RC circuit

dQ
Using the definition of current i = and the equation (4), we may obtain the current and
dt
charge with respect to time. We may also obtain the potential differences across the capacitor and
the resistor.
 Q (t ) = CV 0 [1 − e −t /RC ] (5)

dQ V 0 −t / RC
i (t ) = = e (6)
dt R
V R (t ) = i (t )R = V 0 e −t / RC (7)

Q (t )
Vc (t ) = = V0 [1 − e −t /RC ] (8)
C
Figure 3 shows the charge Q(t) stored in the capacitor and the current i(t) in the circuit for the
charging process. At t goes to infinity, the current goes to zero and the charge on the capacitor goes
to the equilibrium value CVo.

(a) (b)

Figure 1. (a) The current and the charge when the capacitor is being charged. (b) The
voltage across the capacitor when the capacitor is being charged.

The term RC is called the capacitive time constant τ, so

τ = RC . (9)
When the time t = RC, the voltage across the capacitor increases from 0 to 63.2% of its maximum
equilibrium value.

3) Discharging the capacitor

When the capacitor is fully charged to a potential Vo, switch S is connected from a to d (Figure 2) so
that the capacitor can discharge through the resistance R. The Kirchhoff’s loop rule may be written
as
Q
VR + VC = iR + =0 (10)
C
Solving the above equation, similarly as in the case of charging a capacitor, we obtain:

Q (t ) = Q 0 e −t / RC (11)

dQ Q V
i (t ) = = − 0 e −t / RC = − 0 e −t / RC (12)
dt RC R

where Q 0 = C V 0 . The time dependence of the charge Q stored in the capacitor, the current i in the

circuit, and the voltage across the capacitor for the discharging process decrease exponentially with
time as shown in Figure 4. When the switch S is connected to the position d, current flows through
the opposite direction to that during charging.

(a) (b)
Figure 4. (a) The charge of the capacitor and the current in RC circuit. (b) The
voltage across the capacitor as a function of time when the capacitor is
discharged in RC circuit

When the time t = RC, the voltage across the capacitor decreases from its initial value V0 to 0.368V0.

3. References
(1) Minjung Kweon et al., UNIVERSITY PHYSICS, (Cheungmunkak, 2014), Chapter 21.
(2) D. Halliday, R. Resnick, and J. walker, FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS, (John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. 2013. 10th Ed), Chapter 31.
(3) Raymond A. Serway and Chris Vuille, COLLEGE PHYSICS, (Cengage Learning 2014 10th Ed)
Chapter 18.
4. Equipment and devices
(1) RC circuit board
(2) DC power supply (<30 V)
(3) Stop watch
(4) Two multimeters
(5) Function generator
(6) Oscilloscope

5. Experimental procedure
 Cautions:
Before measurements, all capacitors should be discharged. For discharging, both ends of the
capacitors should be connected momently with a jumper cable. Be careful not to touch the
capacitor by hands.

1) Charging and discharging – long time constant

(1) Connect the DC power supply to the post P1 and P2, one digital multimeter to the post P3 and P4
to measure VR and another multimeter to the post P6 and P7 to measure VC as shown in the
Figure 5. Keep the switch S1 in neutral position(open) and turn the switch S3 to C1.
(2) Turn the DC power supply on and adjust the output voltage to 10 V. Turn the Rotary Function
Selector Switch of the multimeters to the position of mV to measure the voltage.

Figure 5 Setup for RC circuit with large capacitor and resistor.

(3) Charging – Turn the switch S3 to the capacitor C1. Turn the switch S1 to the ‘charge’ position
and start the stopwatch simultaneously. Record the voltages VR and VC at intervals of 5 seconds.
(4) When the capacitor is fully charged, turn the switch S1 to the ‘open’ position and reset the stop
watch.
(5) Discharging – Turn the switch S1 to the ‘discharge’ position and start the stop watch
simultaneously. Record the voltages VR and VC at intervals of 5 seconds.
(6) Turn the switch S3 to C2. Repeat steps (3) (4) and (5) for the capacitor C2.
(7) Plot VC(t) and VR(t) versus t. Find the time constant τ from the graphs for charging and
discharging. Compare the time constant τ obtained from the graph with the calculated time
constant τ = RC .

2) Charging and discharging - short time constant

(1) Connect the main output port of the function generator and the channel 1 of the digital
oscilloscope to the post P8 and P9 with BNC cables. Connect the channel 2 of the oscilloscope
to the post P11 and P13 to measure VC as shown in the Figure 6.
(2) Turn the function generator on and select a square waveform pressing the FUNC key repeatedly.

Press the FREQ key, number keys and kHz key to select frequencies or press the FREQ key and

turn the scroll wheel. Turn the scroll wheel to adjust the output voltage to 4 V after pressing the

AMPL and the OUTPUT keys.

(3) Turn the power of the digital oscilloscope on and press the Autoset key. A square wave will
appear in the center of the display. Adjust the horizontal and vertical position knob, VOLT/DIV
knob and TIME/DIV knob for Channel 2 until you obtain the charging/discharging trace.
Expand the trace and adjust the amplitude of the function generators so that it extends across the

Figure 6 Setup for RC circuit with small capacitor and resistor.

 whole 8 divisions of the screen, only making visible one or two complete periods of the square
wave as shown in Figure 7.
(4) Record the time τ it takes for the voltage of the capacitor to reach 63% of the highest voltage.
Similarly, record the time when the discharging voltage decreases 27% from its highest voltage.
These two values should be roughly identical. Find the average and use this as the experimental
time constant.
(5) Measure the resistance of the variable resistor R2 and record it.
(6) Plot the oscilloscope trace in your report and illustrate how you obtained the time constant.
(7) Repeat the step 3 to 6 for different values of resistance and capacitance.

Figure 7 Charging and discharging waveform across a capacitor

 Experimental Results Report

6-10 RC Circuit
Department : ID No : Name :
Co-workers : Date :

1. Measurements and calculations

1. Charging and discharging – long time constant

V0 = V

1) Charging experiment 1

C1 = F, R1 = Ω
t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V
0 85

5 90

10 95

15 100

20 105

25 110

30 120

35 130

40 140

45 160

50 180

55 200

60 220

65 240

70 260

75 280

80 300
2) Discharging experiment 1

C1 = F, R1 = Ω
t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V
0 85
5 90
10 95
15 100
20 105
25 110
30 120
35 130
40 140
45 160
50 180
55 200
60 220
65 240
70 260
75 280
80 300

Graph for charging and discharging

3) Charging experiment 2

C2 = F, R1 = Ω

t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V

0 85

5 90

10 95

15 100

20 105

25 110

30 120

35 130

40 140

45 160

50 180

55 200

60 220

65 240

70 260

75 280

80 300
4) Discharging experiment 2

C2 = F, R1 = Ω
t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V t, s VC(t), V VR(t), V
0 85
5 90
10 95
15 100
20 105
25 110
30 120
35 130
40 140
45 160
50 180
55 200
60 220
65 240
70 260
75 280
80 300

Graph for charging and discharging

2) Charging and discharging - short time constant
Charging Discharging Average τ
R2 (kΩ) Connection C equiv = (μF)
τ (ms) τ (ms) τ (ms) R

C3

C3+C4

C3+C5

C3+C4+C5

Calculate the capacitance of C4 and C5 from the upper experimental results.

C4 = µF, C5 = µF

Plot one of the oscilloscope traces and illustrate how you obtained the time constant.

( V/div, ms/div)

2. Results and discussion

3. Questions
(1) How would the time constant for charging or discharging change if a smaller resistor is connected
in the RC circuit?

(2) How would the time constant for charging or discharging change if a larger capacitance is
connected in the RC circuit?

(3) What is the stored electric energy in the capacitors used in the experiment?

(4) If your cellular phone battery needs to be charged fast, what can you do for the resistance in the
circuit? Why could fast-charging circuits sometimes be dangerous?