Education Technology


Vernier - Capacitors

Activity Overview

In this lesson, students will use the voltage probe to measure the discharge of a capacitor.

Objectives

  • Measure an experimental time constant of a resistor-capacitor circuit.
  • Compare the time constant to the value predicted from the component values of the resistance and capacitance.
  • Measure the potential across a capacitor as a function of time as it discharges.
  • Fit an exponential function to the data. One of the fit parameters corresponds to an experimental time constant.