Practical No.8 RC time constant

Name: ................................................................................................
ID no: ............................... Class and Section: ...............................
Practical Course:Charging and discharging

RC circuit and the RC time constant τ
I. Objectives:
 The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the charging and
discharging behaviour of in series RC circuit.
 To measure the time constant τ for a charging and discharging RC circuit.
II. Apparatus:
DC power supply, DMM, capacitor, resistance, dual switch, stop watch, and
banana plug wires.
III. Theory
A. Charging
The RC circuit in figure 1 below consists of a capacitor C and a resistance R
connected in series to a voltage source ε, at time zero the capacitor is uncharged,
this means that Q0=0 at t=0. When the switch S1 is closed, charge will start
accumulating on the capacitor hence C starts charging.
By applying Kirchhoff’s voltage loop KVL, the charge Q(t) as a function of time on
the capacitor is given by
t
Q(t )  C (1  e RC
) 1
Since the voltage on the capacitor is related to the charge on it by V=Q/C, thus;
t
V (t )   (1  e RC
) 2
Dr. S. Salman and Dr. A. Abuzir

Name: ................................................................................................
Let us consider the case when the time t=RC, this is called the time constant τ of the
circuit, substituting this in equation 2, we get;
1
V (t  RC )   (1  e1 )   (1  )  0.63 3
e
Therefore the time constant τ=RC of the circuit is the time needed for the
potential difference across the capacitor V(t) to reach 0.63 of the maximum voltage
(the maximum voltage is ε ).
B. Discharging
In this part of the experiment we will consider the charged capacitor C with an
initial potential difference ε0 at the time we turn the switch S1 off and turn the
switch 2 S2 on so the initial charge will be Q0=C ε0 (Figure 2). When S2 is on the
initially charged capacitor C starts to discharge through the resistance according to
the relation
t t

Q(t )  Q0 e RC
   Ce RC
4
and voltage across the capacitor V(t) is given by;

t
Q(t )
V (t )     e RC 5
C
Let us also consider the case when the time t=RC equals to the time constant τ of
the circuit, by substituting this in equation 5, we get;

V (t  RC )    e 1   0.37   6
e
Therefore the time constant τ of this circuit is the time needed for the potential
difference across the capacitor V(t) to drop to 0.37 of its maximum voltage (ε0).

Name: ................................................................................................
IV. Experimental procedure and data analysis

A. Capacitor Charging
1- Discharge the two capacitors by connecting the two terminals of each capacitor
together by a wire (Initial charge Q=zero).
2- Use the DMM to measure the values of the resistance and the Capacitor and
calculate the time constant τ
R = …………………..Ohm C = ……..……………Farad
τ =RC= ...............................second
3- Connect the circuit Figure 1 without turning the power supply on, pay attention
to the polarity of the capacitor!
4- Set the power supply voltage ε to about 5 Volts (or as instructed) then Turn on
voltage to about and start taking the voltages for the charging case as a function
of time and fill in the charging part of Table 1 below. Wait enough time up to
your DMM reading is very close to the power supply reading ε.
Measure ε=..................Volts.
5- Plot the charging time as a function the voltage across the capacitor V(t).
Plot time versus
   V (t ) 
6- Plot time t versus ln  and deduce the time constant τ.
  
τ =............................
7- Compare the deduced time constant from the plot to the calculated τ in step 2
above and calculate the error.
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Name: ................................................................................................
B. Capacitor discharging
1- Write down the maximum charging voltage ε0 of the capacitor ε0=...................
2- Turn switch1 S1 off and switch2 S2 on and start taking the voltages for the
discharging case as a function of time and fill them in Table 1 below. Wait
enough time up to your DMM reading is very close zero volts.
3- Plot the discharging time as a function the voltage across the capacitor V(t).
 V (t ) 
4- Plot time t versus ln   and deduce the time constant τ.
  
τ =.......................
5- Compare the deduced time constant τ from the plot to the calculated τ in step 2
above and calculate the error.
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
Capacitor charging Capacitor discharging

  V (t )    V (t )   V (t ) 
ln  
 ln  
   
Time (sec) V(t)    Time (s) V(t)
0 ε0 =
ε0 =
Table 1

Practical No.8 RC time constant

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Name: ................................................................................................

ID no: ............................... Class and Section: ...............................

Practical Course:Charging and discharging

Dr. S. Salman and Dr. A. Abuzir

ID no: ............................... Class and Section: ...............................

and voltage across the capacitor V(t) is given by;

Dr. S. Salman and Dr. A. Abuzir

ID no: ............................... Class and Section: ...............................

IV. Experimental procedure and data analysis

Dr. S. Salman and Dr. A. Abuzir

ID no: ............................... Class and Section: ...............................

Capacitor charging Capacitor discharging

Dr. S. Salman and Dr. A. Abuzir

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