PHYSICS

INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT ON: -
Charging and discharging of
capacitor in R-C circuits

By: SRI
KANNAN.R
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INDEX
S no. TOPICS
1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
2. CERTIFICATE
3. INVESTIGATORY PROJECT REPORT
(i) Aim
(ii) Introduction
(iii) Materials required
(iv) Theory
(v) Procedure
(vi) Observations and Calculations
(vii) Conclusion
(viii) Bibliography
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
On completion of my investigatory project I feel
extremely delighted but it wasn’t a single
effort. First of all, I would like to thank my
mother for helping me and encouraging me to
continue this project and helping me as well.
Then I would like to thank my mentor and
physics teacher Mr. Bala Murali for teaching me
the basics of this investigation and giving me
this opportunity to make this project.
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CERTIFICATE
This is hereby to certify that the original and
genuine investigation work has been carried
out to investigate about the subject matter and
the related data collection and investigation
has been completed solely, sincerely and
satisfactorily by
Sri Kannan of CLASS XII – A, Vels Vidhyalaya,
Ambasamudram, regarding his project titled
“Charging and discharging of capacitors in R-C
Circuit”.

Teacher’s Signature
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INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT REPORT
ON: -

Charging and discharging of capacitors in

R-C circuit
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1. Aim: -
To verify that 63% charge is stored in a capacitor in a R-C circuit at its time
constant and 63% charge remains when capacitor is discharged and hence plot a
graph between voltage and time

2. Introduction: -
An R-C circuit is a circuit containing a resistor and capacitor in series to a
power source. Such circuits are very important applications in various areas
of science and in basic circuits which act as building blocks of modern
technological devices.
It should be really helpful if we get comfortable with the terminologies
charging and discharging of capacitors.
(i) Charging of capacitor : -
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used
to store energy in an electric field. In the hydraulic analogy,
charge carriers lowing through a wire are analogous to water
lowing through a pipe. A capacitor is like a rubber membrane
sealed inside a pipe. Water molecules cannot pass through the
membrane, but some water can move by stretching the
membrane. The analogy clarifies a few aspects of capacitors:

• The low of current alters the charge on a capacitor, just as the low of water
changes the position of the membrane. More specifically, the effect of an
electric current is to increase the charge of one plate of the capacitor, and
decrease the charge of the other plate by an equal amount. This is just like
how, when water low moves the rubber membrane, it increases the
amount of water on one side of the membrane, and decreases the amount
of water on the other side.

• The more a capacitor is charged, the larger its voltage drop;

i. e., the more it "pushes back" against the charging current. This is
analogous to the fact that the more a membrane is stretched, the
more it pushes back on the water.
• Current can low "through" a capacitor even though no individual electron
can get from one side to the other. This is analogous to the fact that water
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can low through the pipe even though no water molecule can pass through
the rubber membrane. Of course, the low cannot continue the same
direction forever; the capacitor will experience dielectric breakdown, and
analogously the membrane will eventually break.

• The capacitance describes how much charge can be stored on one plate of
a capacitor for a given "push" (voltage drop). A very stretchy, lexible
membrane corresponds to a higher capacitance than a stif membrane.

• A charged-up capacitor is storing potential energy, analogously to a

stretched membrane.

i. Discharging of capacitor: -
Using hydraulic analogy only we can understand that when the
capacitor is charged the membrane is stretched, but now if you
allow the water to come out slowly and let the membrane relax,
then it is called discharging of capacitor. In other words, when the
charge on each of the plates becomes zero and the potential
difference across its terminals drops to zero. Below is a graphical
description of capacitor as a pipe with a membrane: -
1. relaxed membrane (uncharged)

2. Stretched membrane (charged)

3. Materials Required: -
1. Breadboard
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2. 100µF capacitor
3. 1 MΩ resistor

4. Multimeter

5. 9V battery

6. Wire stripper, connecting wires, battery connector

and stopwatch

4. Theory: -
When a capacitor of capacitance C is connected in series with a resistor of
resistance R and then connected to a battery of EMF E it gets charged but
since some resistance has been introduced, this charging process takes
some time and hence the potential diference between the plates of the
capacitor varies as an exponential function of time, i.e.
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V α e xt
The circuit diagram for this experiment is given below: -

Applying Kirchhof’s law in the above circuit during charging,

i.e. capacitor is connected to the battery
E - V c - iR=0…………….. (i )
Q
C
=
c

Putting above value in eq. (i)

Q
E - C - iR=0
dQ Since
i= dt
Q dQ
Therefore, E - C - dt R=0
Q dQ
E - C = dt R
dQ
EC-Q= dt RC
Integrating both sides

dt ∫ dQ
0t RC = Q0 EC1−Q
EC−Q t
−ln
= RC …………. (ii)
EC

−Q −t

1 EC = e RC
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−t

Hence we get, Q=EC (1−eRC)

Since EC=Q0 for a capacitor Therefore,
−t

Q=Q0 (1−e RC) ……………….. (iii)

Here, Q charge at time t

Qo max charge

Also Q=CV and Qo=CVo, where V and Vo are voltage at time t and max voltage
respectively

Therefore, from eq (iii),

−t

CV=CVo (1−e RC)

V=V (1−e )
−RCt
o , this is the required expression.

[NOTE: - This is the charging equation only, for discharging equation proceed the
same way but only remove E from Kirchhof law’s equation]

Thus equation for discharging,

V=V0 (eRC −t)

When RC=t, then equation becomes,

V=Vo (1−e−1)

Which on solving gives

V=0.63Vo, i.e. the voltage on capacitor at time t=RC becomes 63% of the max
voltage, which means 63% of total charge has been stored in the capacitor.
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This product of R and C has been given a new name, i.e. time constant and is
denoted by τ, which means for any capacitor in RC circuit 63% of total charge is
stored at time constant.

In my experiment I have used a 100µF capacitor and a 1MΩ resistor thus time
constant = 100×10-6×106=100 sec.
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5. Procedure: -
(i) Connect all the components in the breadboard as shown in the
following picture,

(ii) Now take multimeter leads and place them in the two
terminals shaped like
(iii) B
e
fore proceeding further we must have a bit of knowledge about
breadboard. A breadboard is a simple circuit building device used to
build temporary circuits just to test their working. It is very simple to
work with as it does not require any soldering or attachment of
components. The components could be just pushed in the holes and
connections could be made easily. A straight line pattern of holes
resembles a wire and the arrangement of these holes are shown
below: -
(iv) Now take the battery and connect its terminals across the terminals
of the capacitor and start the stop watch. Note the readings at 20sec
intervals and write them down. [NOTE: - Reading the previous
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statement could be astonishing as it says that measure voltage at
20sec interval but one could question that current move at very high
speed so how could one measure the changing readings! But believe
me it wasn’t an easy task but since the voltage depends on reciprocal
of exponential function and as time passes by the changing readings
will get slowed down and even after infinite time the capacitor could
not be charged up to max voltage. Also since its time constant is
100sec which is quite practical to measure at and hence this
experiment is very much justified.]. Take 10 readings and if required
the 20sec gap could be increased because as the time passes by the
change in voltage becomes smaller and smaller.
(v) Now let the capacitor be charged up to 460 secs because then it will
become 99.99% charged [since we have a limited time and we can’t
wait for infinite time for it to charge completely!]. Now remove the
battery and now attach a wire in place of the battery terminals and
again note the multimeter readings changing and record them.
(vi) Plot a graph between voltage and time for charging as well as
discharging.
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6. Observations and calculations: -

Plot of voltage v/s time

Time on x-axis and voltage on y-axis (i) For
charging: -
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charging of capacitor

Y-Values

( ii ) For discharging: -

Discharging of capacitor

Y-Values

The original graphs for discharging and charging respectively are:

-
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Calculations: -

Now since the graphs are very much similar to the graphs of charging and
discharging of capacitor.

At τ=100sec, during charging of capacitor the voltage on capacitor is 5.69 volt as it

is observed in the experiment. Now using the charging formula: -
−t

V=9(1- e t )

1
V=9(1- e )
≈5.69
V=5.67 which is achieved experimentally as well.

Similarly, during discharging,

V=9* e−1

V=3.32≈3.30 which is achieved experimentally as well

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7. Conclusion: -
Hence it is verified experimentally that 63% charge is there on capacitor
after time constant during charging and 63% charge is lost at time constant
during discharging.

8. References: -
• Google.co.in
• En.wikipedia.org
• Concepts of physics part 2 by H.C. Verma
• This project is completely created with the help of Microsoft word 2007
and the graphs, equations and observation tables are also created with the
help of the same.