1. Lab #4: RC and RL Circuits remember what capacitors and inductors are remember why circuits containing them can have currents that change with time

2. Capacitor Two plates with a dielectric in between 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

3. RC Circuit: close switch Charge will flow to the capacitor, charging it and raising its potential. The potential will asymptotically approach V 0. The current will be biggest at the beginning, when  V is greatest, and will get smaller as  V decreases (as the cap charges). RC time constant (  ) Note: Vc+vr= constant!

4. RC Circuit: Open Switch Discharge with same RC time constant

5. Experiment Be careful with the grounds! Outer shield on bnc cable from scope is at ground. Make sure it goes on ground side of cap when measuring it instrumentation amplifier: needed when measuring voltage across R calculate RC from the values in the circuit measure the RC time constant (  ), which is the time to drop to 0.37% of maximum signal and compare

6. Inductor Sprague- Goodman A coil of wire Minus sign means sense of the voltage will be to oppose the change in current.

7. Inductors Instead of a step function change in voltage, the inductor will develop a voltage across it due to the change in current which will partially cancel the voltage in the battery and reduce the current. L/R time constant

8. 174 refresher If you have made two measurements of the same thing, how do you check to see if they agree within errors -> Is their difference zero within errors? Calculate chi2 and prob of having a difference that big or bigger…

9. Hints When wiring circuit, use black wires only for portions of circuit at ground. When wiring the circuit, first wire everything except the scope. Add it last. Be sure scope is DC coupled (AC coupling adds an extra capacitor, beyond the one you want to measure) make sure ch1 and ch2 are on x1 setting Make sure they have the same v/division scale

10. Hints lab starts pg 39 Only 6 lcr meters in class. They come in two different types. For systematic errors, see manual on your desk top (be careful to use the correct one). Only consider systematic errors in L,R and C measurements, not in scope measurements for A-11, replace 2 nd sentence with “Capture both waveforms using wavestar. Then sketch Vin-Vc and show to your instructor. capture VR in A-2. Be sure to use the instrumentation amplifier when measuring VR when calculate lifetime, need an error for example, in A-3, need to calculate errors and say if they are consistent within errors A-4. don’t try higher frequencies. Just lower ones. A-4. How does the time constant change with frequency? Does it agree with expectations to within errors? (ignore the sentence “consider the fact…”

11. Hints part B-3. just grab the signal with wavestar, paste the resulting plot in the lab book, and comment. do not try to get an error on tau extracted from the ln (ft) DO NOT DO SECTION B.3