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    Investigate how the charge on a capacitor is related to the potential difference applied across it by charging the capacitor at a constant rate.

    Extracts from this document...

    Introduction

    Charging a capacitor at a constant rate

    Objective:

      ~ To investigate how the charge on a capacitor is related to the potential difference applied across it by charging the capacitor at a constant rate.

    Apparatus:

    ~ Capacitor (electrolytic type) 500image00.pngimage00.pngF

    ~ Microammeter 100image00.pngimage00.pngA

    ~ Potentiometer 100kimage05.pngimage05.png

    ~ Clip component holder

    ~ Stop-watch

    ~ CRO

    ~ Connecting leads

    Description of design:

    Theory:

      From definition, the capacitance C of a capacitor is found fromimage06.pngimage06.png, where Q is the charge

    ...read more.

    Middle

    image01.png=I, where I is a constant. Thenimage02.pngimage02.png=image03.pngimage03.png is also a constant. Hence, the potential difference across the capacitor increases linearly with time.

    Data Analysis:

    The result of this experiment is shown as below:

    p.d. across capacitor V

    1V

    2V

    3V

    4V

    5V

    1st attempt

    Time t

    5.92s

    11.73s

    17.67s

    23.67s

    29.42s

    2nd

    attempt

    ...read more.

    Conclusion

    Error analysis:

    ~ There will be systematic errors like there are zero errors of the microammeter so that we cannot keep the current in a steady condition.

    ~Also, there will be random errors which produce unpredictable deviations from the true value. For instance, there are human reaction time, random parallax error and imperfect material used.

    Possible improvements of the experiment:

    ~ Since the systematic error cannot be reduced or eliminated by taking the average of repeated readings, so, we should tackle the problems by techniques such as calibration curves and control experiment.

    ~ Moreover, random error cannot be eliminated but could be reduced by taking the average of repeated reading.

    ...read more.

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