rcandlrcircuitsmeasuringthetimeconstant.docVIP

Experiment 10 RC and RL circuits: Measuring the time constant. Object: The object of this lab is to measure the time constant of an RC circuit and a LR circuit. In addition, one can observe the characteristics of these two circuits and compare them. Pre Lab Assignment: Refer to the theory below. If the time to achieve ? the maximum voltage (refer to step 11 of the procedure of the RC circuit) across the capacitor in an RC circuit is 0.045 s, what is the capacitance in the circuit if the resistance is 150 ?? For an RL circuit, the voltage across the inductor drops from 4.0 V to a constant 1.5 V as a current is established. In addition the voltage across a 4.7 ? resistor builds to a steady 2.5 V. What is the resistance of this less than perfect inductor? (Refer to step 13 of the procedure of the RL circuit for help with this problem.) If it takes 1.2 ms for the voltage across the inductor to drop from 4.0 V to 2.75 V, what is the time constant for the RL circuit in question 2? Hint: What is the fraction of the total change in voltage across the inductor represented by a drop from 4.0 V to 2.75 V? What is the inductance of the RL circuit in questions 2 and 3? Theory: RC Circuit The RC circuit was discussed earlier in the semester. To review: A voltage source will charge a capacitor by moving charge through a resistor until the capacitor is fully charged. The potential difference across the resistor is proportional to the current through the resistor while the potential difference across the capacitor is proportional to the charge on the capacitor. The equations for current through the resistor, and charge on the charging capacitor are and where t is time, I is the current in the circuit, Q is the charge on the capacitor, V0 is the source voltage, R is the resistance, C is the capacitance and ? is the time constant and equal to RC. If the voltage source is now disconnected, and the capacitor discharged through the resistor, the potential difference and curre