In: Physics
In a capacitor charging and discharging experiment with a resistor of 10 ohms, if we plot our data so LVC (volts) is in the y-axis and time (seconds) in the x-axis, what would the slope of the resulting line represent? how do we use this slope to calculate the capacitance of this capacitor?
The charging og the capacitor having capacitance C is governed by the following formula
Here, Q is the maximum charge and is equal to CV.
Here,
The discharging is governed by
Slope m =y/x
If volts are plotted on the y axis and time is on the x axis then the slope m represents (Using Fig. (1))
Using Q=CV
It represents the current. Usually charge is on the y axis if this is the case then It can also be proceeded as follows
Q= C V.
Dividing both sides with time t and using V=IR
So here slope corresponds to time constant
(b) As shown in the figure at 0.632 CV time becomes equal to time constance which is equal to RC. So on your data plot find the point where you get 0.632 times of the maximum value of charge on y axis then draw the corresponding prependicylar on x axis . The value on x axis represents tau. Then C can be calculated as