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Equipment & components:

Function generator (1)

Digital MultiMeter (DMM) (1)
Oscilloscope (1)
Breadboard (1)
Resistors: 100 Ohm (1)
Capacitor: 0.ȝ) (2)

Preview questions:

1. What is the phase angle between a capacitor's voltage and current?

90 degrees

2. How does the capacitive reactance of a circuit relate to its frequency?

They are inversely proportional

Procedures:

1. Set the function generator to sine wave at 1 kHz with a peak value of 10 volts. Build
the circuit as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

2. Set a DMM to the AC current function. Measure the current in the circuit.

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Capacitors in parallel act as resistors in series, so C_total = C_1 + C_2 = 0.1 + 0.1 = 0.2 microfarads

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I_RMS = V_RMS/X_C = 7.07/314.2x10^-6 = 2.22 mA

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The parallel branches are identical, so the current is split evenly between them.
 Appendix
Measure a Phase Angle between Two Sinusoidal Signals

1. Use two channels of an oscilloscope to measure the signals.

2. Adjust the time scale and voltage scales for getting one cycle of clear waveform
display.

3. Measure the number of horizontal blocks taken by one cycle of a waveform. Keep two
significant digits.

4. Degrees per block = (360 degrees)/(the number of blocks measured in the last step)

5. Count the number of horizontal blocks between the cross zero to positive points of the
two waveforms.

6. The phase angle between the two waveforms = (the number of blocks obtained in step
5 multiplied by the degrees per block obtained in step 4)

Conclusions:

The first goal of this lab was to examine the properties of a capacitor in an ac circuit. To do this, the team
built and analyzed three circuits: one with only a capacitor and a voltage source, another which added a
resistor, and the third being two capacitors in series. For each circuit, a function generator was used to
supply the circuit with power and a digital multimeter was used to measure the current across each
component. Additionally, the measured current and the voltage supplied by the function generator were used
to calculate the capacitive reactance. By comparing the values found for different elements in different circuit
structures, the team determined the properties of capacitors in different situations.

The second goal of the lab was to determine the phase angle between a capacitor's voltage and current. This
was accomplished by building a circuit with a capacitor and a resistor in series; the voltage was supplied by a
function generator. An oscilloscope was then used to measure the voltage across the capacitor and resistor,
respectively, and the result was used to determine the phase angle between the two according to the steps in
the appendix. This corresponds to the phase angle between the current and voltage of the capacitor because
of the reasons outlined in step nine of the lab procedure.