Experiment PH06 – RC CIRCUITS PHYS 112 PHYS 227/232/262

Experiment PH06 – RC CIRCUITS PHYS 112 PHYS 227/232/262. When a DC voltage source is connected across an uncharged capacitor in a RC circuit, the rate at which the capacitor charges actually decreases as time passes because the resistance in the circuit slows the charging process. At first, the capacitor is easy to charge because there is very little charge on the plates. But as charge accumulates on the plates, the voltage source must do more work to move additional charges onto the plates because the plates already have charge of the same sign on them. As a result, the capacitor charges exponentially, quickly at the beginning and more slowly as the capacitor nears full charge. The charge on the plates at any time is given by: