Experiment No. 5 - Capacitors

In this experiment I had to caculate how long it would take to charge 4 different capacitors then observe them charging on a scope.

First there was a circuit I had to put together which would be used to observe the time taken to charge the capacitors.

These are the results I got by using a simple formula - R x C x 5 = T, this is the time it takes to charge up to the applied voltage.

These are the images taken from the graph on the scope using the different capacitors and resistors.

100uF , 1Kohm 100uF , 0.1Kohm

330uF , 1Kohm 100uF , 0.47Kohm


Changes in the resistor affect the charging time by the larger the resistor the lower the current flow is going to be as it is restriced and if it is a smaller resistor more current flow will be able to pass so it will take less time to charge.

Changes in the capacitor affect the charging time because the larger the capacitor the longer it will take to charge as it can hold more charge ans with a smaller capacitor it hold less charge so it will take less time to charge.