Experiment Description

Experiment

Experiment E04    Charge and Discharge Waveforms of a Capacitor

Objectives
  • Demonstrate the charging and discharging waveforms of a capacitor
  • Learn how to charge and discharge a capacitor using square wave
  • Study how the combination of time constant affects the charging and discharging of a capacitor
Description
In this activity, you will use a square wave to simulate the regular switching on and off of a RC circuit. The charging and discharging waveforms of the capacitor are displayed using a CRO.

In Experiment 1, the capacitor is charged and discharged at the frequency of the signal generator which outputs square waves. The CRO connected across the capacitor is to display the variation of charge on the capacitor.

In Experiment 2, the CRO is connected across the resistor to display the variation of current in the CR circuit.
Apparatus
capacitance substitution box (220 pF - 1 mF) [1]
resistance substitution box (100 ohm - 470 kOhm) [1]
single generator [1]
single beam CRO [1]
capacitor (1000 mF) [1]
resistor (47 kOhm) [1]
Experiment