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Lecture

Charging Capacitors: Time-Dependent Current and Circuits Analysis

In course

PHYS-201(d): General physics: electromagnetism

The topics covered by the course are concepts of electromagnetism, properties of waves, and fluid mechanics. ...

Description

This lecture explores the process of charging capacitors using experiments with cylindrical capacitors and batteries, analyzing circuits with capacitors in parallel and series, and deriving differential equations to understand the time-dependent current. The instructor demonstrates how the energy stored in capacitors affects the circuit's behavior, introduces the concept of time constant tau as the product of resistance and capacitance, and explains the exponential charging and discharging behavior of capacitors. By examining the total capacitance in parallel and series circuits, students learn how to calculate the overall capacitance and understand the relationship between capacitors, resistors, and time constants.

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Instructor

Dirk Grundler

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Electromagnetism: Electrical networks, Electrostatics

Related concepts (32)

RC circuit

A resistor–capacitor circuit (RC circuit), or RC filter or RC network, is an electric circuit composed of resistors and capacitors. It may be driven by a voltage or current source and these will produce different responses. A first order RC circuit is composed of one resistor and one capacitor and is the simplest type of RC circuit. RC circuits can be used to filter a signal by blocking certain frequencies and passing others.

Network analysis (electrical circuits)

In electrical engineering and electronics, a network is a collection of interconnected components. Network analysis is the process of finding the voltages across, and the currents through, all network components. There are many techniques for calculating these values; however, for the most part, the techniques assume linear components. Except where stated, the methods described in this article are applicable only to linear network analysis.

Capacitor types

Capacitors are manufactured in many styles, forms, dimensions, and from a large variety of materials. They all contain at least two electrical conductors, called plates, separated by an insulating layer (dielectric). Capacitors are widely used as parts of electrical circuits in many common electrical devices. Capacitors, together with resistors and inductors, belong to the group of passive components in electronic equipment.

Film capacitor

Film capacitors, plastic film capacitors, film dielectric capacitors, or polymer film capacitors, generically called film caps as well as power film capacitors, are electrical capacitors with an insulating plastic film as the dielectric, sometimes combined with paper as carrier of the electrodes. The dielectric films, depending on the desired dielectric strength, are drawn in a special process to an extremely thin thickness, and are then provided with electrodes.

Electrolytic capacitor

An electrolytic capacitor is a polarized capacitor whose anode or positive plate is made of a metal that forms an insulating oxide layer through anodization. This oxide layer acts as the dielectric of the capacitor. A solid, liquid, or gel electrolyte covers the surface of this oxide layer, serving as the cathode or negative plate of the capacitor. Because of their very thin dielectric oxide layer and enlarged anode surface, electrolytic capacitors have a much higher capacitance-voltage (CV) product per unit volume than ceramic capacitors or film capacitors, and so can have large capacitance values.

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