I.

OBJECTIVES
a. To introduce concepts of charging and discharging of capacitors
b. To determine charging and discharging voltage of a capacitor and its (Rc) time
constant.
c. To plot the voltage against time during charging and discharging.

II. MATERIALS USED

1unit Power Supply

1unit Voltmeter
1unit Layout Plug-in Board
1pair Plug-in clamps
2piece Capacitors
1piece Resistor
1pair Probe
1piece Stopwatch

III. DATA & RESULTS

Voltage Measurements
Resistance 100k Resistance 100k

Capacitance 470 uF Capacitance 100 uF

Time Constant Time Constant

Voltage Voltage
T Time T Time
Charging Discharging Charging Discharging

0.25 20 4.5 10.2 0.25 20 9.5 10.3

0.50 40 7 10 0.30 40 9.5 10.2

0.75 60 6.5 9.5 0.75 60 10.2 9.3

7.2 60 9 9.5 1.00 80 10.2 9.0

7.32 100 9.8 9 3.00 100 10.2 8.9

2.00 120 10 9.3 3.50 120 10.2 8.3

2.00 140 10.1 8.6 3.20 140 10.2 8
3.00 160 10.2 8.2 3.50 160 10.2 7.5

3.20 160 10.2 8.0 4.0 180 10.2 7.0

4.0 200 10.2 8.0 4.50 200 10.2 6.5

4.50 220 10.2 8.0 4.002 220 10.2 6.2

3.00 240 10.2 8.0 4.50 240 10.2 6.0

6.00 260 10.2 8.0 4.00 260 10.2 6.0

6.0 280 10.2 8.0 4.00 280 10.2 6.0

IV. Experiment Discussion

In this experiment we investigated the charging and discharging of capacitors. At

first, we connected the circuit, then we turned the power supply on and recorded
the reading of the capacitor while it was charging and at some point, it stopped
increasing which indicated that the capacitor is fully charged.

Then for the second part of the experiment we turned off the power supply and the
capacitor reading started decreasing. Till the reading stopped at 6.

V. Answers to Questions

1. Compare the time it takes to fully charge the capacitor in trial 1 & 2.
Comparing trial 1 and trial 2, we can see that the lower capacitor we use, the
faster it charges.

2. The Voltage across the capacitor, Vc at any instant time during the charging
method in given Vc= Vs(1-C^-2/Rc) where Vs is the voltage supply, R is the
resistance in ohm, C is the capacitance in Farad, t is the time elapsed since the
applicated of supply a.) What is the voltage across the capacitor in trial 1 after
10 seconds?
The capacitor across the capacitor in trial 1 after 10s is 2.5.

3. From the graph, approximately Vc after 20 seconds in trial 1 and compare it to

the computer value.
The reading of the voltage in trial 1 and the computed value are almost the
same.

VI. Conclusions.
As the reading were obtained. The experiment was carried out as instructed.
Discharging will be gain when the capacitor is disconnected rom the power supply
then it will start to discharge while it charges when it is connector to a DC supply
and when the current starts to flow. The experiment was carried out as instructed.
Thus in this experiment the objective was obtained.