Phys 162 Lab 6

Why does a capacitor not charge instantly when connected in series with a resistor?

• The voltage source is too weak

• The resistor limits the flow of current over time

• The capacitor repels incoming charge

• The circuit is not closed completely

If you increase the resistance in an RC circuit while keeping the capacitance the same, what happens to the charging time?

•  It stays the same

• It becomes faster
  

• It becomes slower

• It drops to zero

During discharging, what happens to the voltage across the capacitor?

• It increases exponentially
  

• It remains constant

• It decreases exponentially

• It oscillates

Why is it important to wait 15–20 seconds during charging and discharging in the experiment?

• To cool down the resistor

• To stabilize the power supply

• To allow the capacitor to fully charge/discharge

• To reset the multimeter

  
  

In the data analysis section, why do we take the natural log of voltage during the discharge analysis?

• To linearize the exponential decay and find the slope

• To convert units from volts to ohms

• To normalize the data

• To remove outliers from the graph