EXPERIMENT 5

CAPACITORS: Capacitors are voltage storage devices. They store charge until a switch is activated to discharge the capacitor. To calculated how long it takes to charge a capacitor is expressed- RxCx5=T eg 1000000ohms x .000001uF x 5= 5secs. Using an ocilliscope you can also calculate the charging time for a capacitor. Setting the ocilliscope to the correct settings 2volt per division and 250ms per division I was able to get good graph readings to calculate the charging time. I found in my results that using different sized resistors the charging time is affected. eg. it will take longer 2 charge a 330uF capacitor if you was to use a 100kohm resistor than compared to a 100ohm resistor the time will be shorter. Also changing the size of capacitor will affect the charging time because a bigger capacitor stores more voltage so it would take longer to reach full capacity. My RESULTS: #1: .ooo1Mohms x 100uF x 5 = 0.05secs #2: .00001 x 100 x 5 = .005secs #3: .00047 x 100 x 5 = .235secs #4: .0001 x 330 x 5 = .165secs. OBSERVED TIME: 1: 515ms 2: 67ms 3: 325ms 4: 1750ms