Capacitors and Simple Circuits

Jacob Zidek & Sarah Nosaka

3/14/17

Introduction:
This investigation looks at simple circuit elements of resistors and capacitors, as well as
how they are configured can affect their purpose. This lab will be using alternating current in
several different configurations to determine said affects.

Theory:
It is assumed that a capacitor starts with two equal and opposite charges, one on each
plate, and discharges through the resistor until it is no longer charged. The charge on the
resistor will decay exponentially as in equation 1.

() = ( )

(Equation 1: Discharge of a capacitor, where T=RC)
T is a time constant of the circuit and will approximately be the time it takes for the
circuit to reach a value of .37.
Resistors behave the same way in AC and DC circuits, but in AC circuits, when paired
with a capacitor, a varying voltage can lead to more interesting effects, through the constant
charging and discharging of the capacitor.
When in the correct configuration, the RC circuit will allow only certain frequencies to
permeate through it, essentially forming a filter, in this lab a low pass and a high pass filter will
be configured.
In order to attempt to find where the RC setup will start degrading frequencies to a
larger extent, or its cutoff, equation 2 and 3 will be used.
() = ( + )
(Equation 2: AC wave function)
tan() =
(Equation 3: filter cutoff value)
Apparatus and procedure:

Two resistors and two capacitors of different values will be used in this lab, along with a
signal generator hooked up to a computer which can take and plot data from it.
The actual value of the .033uF capacitor was found to be .03uF, and the 1uF capacitor was
found to be .938uF.
The complete circuit for the majority of the lab will look like Figure 1, the only modification will
be the supplementation of the resistor and capacitor for different values, and at one point
switching the orientation of the resistor and capacitor.
(Figure 1: RC setup Circuit chart)
Data, Analysis, and Results:

Part One: Simple RC Circuit

(Image 1: Square wave generated by .033uF capacitor and 10kohm resistor)

(Image 2: Calculating the measured tau value)

Variable Measure
Tau (Calculated) 3.09*10^-4
Measured c value 3.2*10^-8 F
Theoretical tau value 3.3*10^-4
Capacitance (calculated) 3.09*10^-8 F
(Chart One: Values from part One)

Here the calculated and theoretical values for tau and c vary only slightly, with a
difference that could be attributed to extra resistance in the circuit, especially through the
variance in the capacitor.
(Image 3: Graph of 1uF capacitor and 1kOhm resistor)

Variable Measure
Tau (Calculated) 9.17*10^-4
Measured c value 1.09*10^-6 F
Theoretical tau value 9.22*10^-4
Capacitance (calculated) 9.17*10^-7 F
(Chart 2: Values from second set of RC circuit)
Once again, the values here for theoretical and calculated are close, with a small enough
error that can be put on differences in resistivity caused by the error in the capacitor.
Part 2: High pass and low pass filters

F(Hz) A (theory)[V] A (measured)[V]

1 4.99 5.00
10 4.99 4.99
20 4.96 4.92
50 4.77 4.79
70 4.58 4.62
100 4.23 4.31
120 3.99 4.07
150 3.64 3.76
159 3.54 3.63
180 3.31 3.46
200 3.11 3.26
220 2.96 3.08

(Chart 3: Raw data from low pass filter)

Low Pass Filter

6

5
Output voltage

0
1 10 20 50 70 100 120 150 159 180 200 220
Frequency [Hz]

A (theory)[V] A (measured)[V]

(Graph One: Low pass filter frequency versus voltage)

 Frequency (Hz) Theory Output [V] Measured Output[V]
3000 5.00 4.98
2000 4.99 4.97
1000 4.90 4.91
500 4.69 4.71
250 4.09 4.10
200 3.07 3.77
159 3.22 3.31
100 2.41 2.49
50 1.30 1.39
(Chart 4: High Pass filter raw data)

High Pass Filter

6

5
Output Voltage [V]

0
3000 2000 1000 500 250 200 159 100 50
Frequency [Hz]

Theory Output [V] Measured Output[V]

(Graph 2: Output voltage Vs Frequency for a high pass filter)

More error is seen in this graph for the high pass filter than there was for the low pass filter,
possibly due to the higher difference in range of frequencies being tested causing some impact
on either the RC circuit or the signal generator.
Conclusion:
As shown in the lab, an RC circuit will hold charge for a short amount of time while an
oscillating current is applied to it. The degradation of charge here is shown to be an exponential
fit.
High pass and low pass filters were successfully setup and the data collected from them
suggests that they dampen frequencies in a certain range, as expected. Some discrepancies in
the data here may be due to the impure values of the capacitors and the assumption that had
to be made during the lab, that the resistor value was exact and precise.
This investigation of RC circuits has shown more into what can be done through use of
simple circuit elements.