Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

Exercise 1: Two capacitors with capacitance C = 10 µF are connected in series in

ID: 1450824 • Letter: E

Question

Exercise 1: Two capacitors with capacitance C = 10 µF are connected in series in a circuit with resistance R = 150 . What is the time constant for this circuit?

Exercise 2: What would be the value for t1/2 for the circuit above?

Exercise 3: An AC power source supplies 12 V to a circuit and oscillates with a frequency of f = 60 Hz. What will the potential of the source be 12 ms after it is turned on?

Exercise 4: What happens to the value of t1/2 when the maximum potential of the source increases?

Note: this is for a lab on fast RC circuits

Explanation / Answer

1) Time constant, T = R*Cnet

= 150*(10/2)*10^-6

= 7.5*10^-4 s

2) Apply, Q = Qmax*(1 - e^(-t/T))

at t = t1/2, Q = Qmax/2

Qmax/2 = Qmax*(1 - e^(t1/2/T))

1/2 = 1 - e^(-t1/2/T)

e^(-t1/2/T) = 1 - 1/2

t1/2 = -T*ln(1/2)

= -7.5*10^-4*ln(1/2)

= 5.2*10^-4 s


3) V = Vmax*sin(w*t)

= Vmax*sin(2*pi*f*t)

= 12*sin(2*pi*60*12*10^-3)

= 12*sin(4.52)

= -11.8 volts

4) t1/2 does not depend on voltage of the source.