The RC Circuit

Produced by the Physics Staff at Collin College

Copyright © Collin College Physics Department. All Rights Reserved.

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Purpose

In this experiment, you will both charge and discharge capacitors in an RC circuit. We will
explore how the charging and discharging times depend on the resistance and capacitance in
the circuit.

Equipment

• Computer with Internet Access

• Online Circuit Simulator: http://falstad.com/circuit/

Theory

When you connect a battery or power supply to an uncharged capacitor, the charge does not
instantaneously appear on the capacitor plates. The charge on (and voltage across) the
capacitor increases exponentially from zero. Similarly, the charge on (and voltage across) the
capacitor decreases exponentially toward zero when you discharge it.

A As with all properties that change at an exponential rate, the rate of change of the charge (or
voltage) on a capacitor at any point in time is proportional to the amount of charge (or
voltage) already present at that time. And like all exponential curves, both the half-life of the
measured property (the time required for the property to change to half — or double — its
value) and its time constant (the time required for the property to change to 1/e of its initial or
final value) are constant. The values of the half-life and of the time constant depend on the
values of C and R in the circuit.

Figure 1 shows a capacitor, a resistor, a

switch, and a battery (power source)
connected in series. Assume initially that
the switch is open and there is no charge
on the capacitor. When the switch is
closed at time t = 0, current begins to
flow in the circuit.

Figure 1

Kirchhoff’s second rule states that the sum of all the voltage drops across the components of a
loop (or series circuit) is zero. The voltage across the capacitor is q/C; the voltage across the
resistor is IR; and the battery has a voltage V0. Assume that the voltages across the other

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circuit components (wires and switch) are negligible. Setting the sum of all the voltage drops
to zero, you get

V0 – q/C – IR = 0 Equation 1

Since the current cannot flow across the capacitor, charge must accumulate on the two
capacitor plates. The time rate of change or accumulation of charge is, of course, the current I,
so

dq/dt = I Equation 2

Eliminating I from equation (1) by using its value in equation (2), you get

V0 – q/C – R(dq/dt) = 0 Equation 3

Equation (3) is a differential equation for the charge on the capacitor as a function of time.
Solving this equation, you get

q(t) = Q(1 – e–t/RC), Equation 4

where Q = C·V0 is the charge on the capacitor after an infinite time. This means that the
voltage across the capacitor is

VC(t) = V0(1 – e–t/RC), Equation 5

where VC = q/C. To find the current, divide the voltage across the resistor VR = V0 - VC to get

I(t) = VR/R = (V0/R)e–t/RC Equation 6

Note from Equations (4) and (6) that the initial charge on the capacitor is zero. This is
consistent with the requirement that the capacitor be uncharged initially. The initial current (at
t = 0) is V0/R. This is the current that would flow if you replaced the capacitor with a short
piece of wire. After an infinite time, the charge on the capacitor is Q, and the current in the
circuit is zero.

The denominator in the exponent of Equations (4), (5), and (6) is RC. This factor is called the
time constant c of the series RC circuit. After a time equal to c, the current in the circuit is
reduced to 1/e (36.8%) of its initial value. This is true for all values of time: if you measure
the current at any time while the capacitor is charging, the current at a time c later will be

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36.8% of the value you measured.

Another way of expressing the rate of current decrease is the half life of the circuit. The half
life, h, is the time for the current to be reduced to 50% of its value. The half life is related to
the time constant by

h = c ln 2 Equation 7

The half-life is the time for the capacitor to discharge from any given charge to half that
charge, or the time required to charge a capacitor to one half the voltage of the power source.

Procedure

The basic procedure is to connect an uncharged capacitor, a resistor and a voltage source in
series and measure the rate at which the voltage across the capacitor increases. However, we
can also characterize the RC circuit by observing the decay of the voltage on a charged
capacitor.

You will observe the discharge of a capacitor through a resistor. You will first charge the
capacitor with a DC voltage, and then use a double-throw switch to disconnect the voltage
source across the capacitor. You will measure VC during both the charging and discharging of
the capacitor, but you will record your measurements only for the discharge. You will start a
stop watch when VC has an arbitrary value; then stop the stop watch when VC drops to half
that value.

A. Automated Time Measurement

Building the Circuit
1. Open the circuit simulator by going to the following website: http://falstad.com/circuit/.
A sample circuit is running when the page opens.
2. Click the "Circuits" pulldown menu, then hover over the "A/C Circuits" submenu. Click
"Capacitor". This will automatically load our first RC circuit.
3. Right click on the resistor and choose "Edit". This will allow you to set the resistance.
Set the resistance to 100 Ω by typing ‘100’ into the textbox.
4. Right click on the capacitor and choose "Edit". Set the capacitance to 330 F. The ‘u’
notation in the textbox indicates ‘micro’.
5. Right click on the Battery and choose Edit. Set the Max Voltage to 3.0 V, the Waveform
to Square Wave, and the Frequency to 0.4 Hz.
6. The graph at the bottom of the screen is the “Scope” and displays the voltage across the
capacitor in green and the current in the circuit in yellow. You will notice that to the right

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 of the graph is a time value and that time is passing but very slowly. You can alter the
flow of time here by adjusting the red and grey slider in the upper right of the screen
labelled Simulation Speed. You can also pause the flow of time entirely by clicking the
Run/Stop button.

Data Collection
1. As you watch the scope display over time, the voltage will switch from positive 3 V to
negative 3 V as a square wave. However, you will also notice that unlike a normal square
wave the scope display shows the voltage increase and decrease gradually rather than
sharply - the leading edge of the square wave is a curve rather than a vertical line. Wait
until the scope display shows the voltage switch from positive to negative, and then click
the "Run/STOP" button once the voltage has dropped below 0 V.
2. If you hover the cursor over the voltage curve, the voltage and time for that point on the
curve will be displayed. Hover the cursor over the point on the voltage curve where the
voltage first starts to drop from +3 V, and record the displayed time as ta in table 7.1 in
your report template.
3. Hover the cursor over the point on the voltage curve where the voltage crosses 0 V, and
record the displayed time as tb in table 7.1 in your report template.
4. Calculate and record the measured half-life, h in Table 7.1 as h = tb - ta.
5. Calculate and record the measured time constantC of the RC circuit in Table 7.1 as C =
h / ln(2).
6. Calculate both the theoretical time constant and theoretical half-life of the circuit using C
= RC and h = C ln(2). Record these values in Table 7.1.
7. Calculate and record the percent difference between the measured and theoretical values
of the time constant for this combination of capacitor and resistor. Given that this is a
simulation, the percent error should be extremely low. Record this value in Table 7.1.

B. Manual Time Measurement

Building the Circuit
1. Open the circuit simulator by going to the following website: http://falstad.com/circuit/.
A sample circuit is running when the page opens.
2. Click the "Circuits" pulldown menu, then hover over the "Basics" submenu. Click
"Capacitor". This will automatically load our second RC circuit.
3. Right click on the resistor and choose Edit. This will allow you to set the resistance. For
now, set the resistance to 10 kΩ by typing ‘10k’ into the textbox.
4. Right click on the capacitor and choose Edit. Set the capacitance to 330 F. The ‘u’
notation in the textbox indicates ‘micro’.
5. Right click on the Battery and choose Edit. Set the Voltage to 4.5 V.
6. The graph at the bottom of the screen is the “Scope” and displays the voltage across the
capacitor in green and the current in the circuit in yellow. You will notice that to the right
of the graph is a time value and that time is passing but very slowly. You can alter the
flow of time here by adjusting the red and grey slider in the upper right of the screen

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 labelled Simulation Speed. You can also pause the flow of time entirely by clicking the
Run/Stop button.

Data Collection
1. Charge the capacitor by closing the switch to the left such that the Capacitor charges
through the Resistor. Let the capacitor charge until the voltage across it is at least 4 volts.
You can adjust the simulation speed.
2. Move the switch to the right position so that the Capacitor discharges through the
Resistor. If you sped up the simulation speed, you may want to slow it back down and be
ready to push the Run/Stop button.
3. When the voltage across the capacitor drops below 1.5 volts, click the "Run/STOP"
button.
4. Hover the cursor over the point on the voltage curve where the voltage crosses 3 V, and
record the displayed time as ta in table 7.2 in your report template.
5. Hover the cursor over the point on the voltage curve where the voltage crosses 1.5 V, and
record the displayed time as tb in table 7.2 in your report template.
6. Calculate and record the measured half-life, h in Table 7.2 as h = tb - ta.
7. Calculate and record the measured time constantC of the RC circuit in Table 7.2 as C =
h / ln(2).
8. Calculate both the theoretical time constant and theoretical half-life of the circuit using C
= RC and h = C ln(2). Record these values in Table 7.2.
9. Calculate and record the percent difference between the measured and theoretical values
of the time constant for this combination of capacitor and resistor. Given that this is a
simulation, the percent error should be extremely low. Record this value in Table 7.2.

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