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  • Capacitor charge and discharge
Topics:  RC Circuit, capacitor, capacitance.

Pre-requisite skills:  Basic understanding of electrostatics.

Approximate completion time:  Under half hour.

Provide sufficient detail to verify that the assignment was completed in a meaningful manner.

ClickHereSimulation.gif (5365 bytes)

Java applet by Michael Davidson
1.  Using the mouse, flip the switch to connect the bottom half of the circuit.

(a)  Describe what happens.

(b)  What do the yellow dots represent? 

(c)  Explain the appearance of the red dots.  What do they represent? 

 

2. Now flip the switch to connect the top half of the circuit.

(a)  Describe what happens.

Helpful Resources

  1. RC Time Constant by Michael Davidson
  2. Electromagnetic Oscillating Circuit by Walter Fendt.
  3. Using the Oscilloscope to Measure the Time Constant by Ian Littlewood.
  4. RC Physlet by Wolfgang Christian
  5. P10D - Electricity and Magnetism by Janak Sodha
  6. Physlet Problems: Circuits by Wolfgang Christian and Mario Belloni (Assignment)

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