PURPOSE

To determine the time constant and capacitance of capacitors in R-C circuit.

APPARATUS
1. A 6 V d.c. power supply
2. An on-off switch
3. A d.c. milliammeter
4. A stopwatch
5. Resistor-pack
6. Two connecting wires with a crocodile clip at one end
7. Eight 50cm connecting wires
8. A 10cm connecting wire
9. A capacitor labeled C1
10.
A capacitor labeled C2
PROCEDURE
Caution :The capacitor was fully discharged, before we started the
experiment. This was done by short-circuiting the terminals.
1. The circuit with switch S is connected up as shown in figure below. The
connecting wire with crocodile clips was connected to points X and Y
and are meant for connection to the resistor-pack for selections of R,
where R is the effective resistance across X and Y.

2. Started with R=60k, switch S is closed, and R was decreases in

stages by proper selection of combination of resistors from the resistorpack until the reading of current I in the milliammeter is 1.0 mA or
about 1.0 Ma. The value of I and the corresponding resistance R was
recorded.
3. Switch S is opened and the terminals of the capacitor is short circuited
with a short connecting wire to fully discharged it.
4. Switch S is closed again to charge the capacitor until the reading of the
milliammeter shows I.
5. Switch S was then opened again and the stopwatch is started
simultaneously, and the reading of milliammeter is observed. The
stopwatch is stopped when the current reaches a certain value of I. The
time, t and the corresponding value of I of the milliammeter is
recorded.
6. Steps (4) and (5) is repeated to abtain a new set of I and t. All the
readings is recorded and tabulated I, t,

I
I

I
, and ln( I ).

7. Then, a capacitor C2 is added to the circuit as in figure below. The

value of R, the total resistance across X and Y, is to be fixed at R.

8. Steps (3), (4), (5), and (6) is repeated to obtained milliammeter

reading I for the corresponding time t. All the readings is recorded and
tabulated I, t,

I
I'

I
, and ln( I ' ).

I
I
9. A graph of ln( I ) against t and a graph of ln( I ' ) against t is
plotted using the same axes.