5.

1 Capacitors

Figure 5.1:

A system of charges, physically separated, has potential energy. The simplest

example is that of two metal plates of large area carrying opposite charges so that the
potential difference is V. The energy stores is CV 2 where C is the capacitance of the
system. It is defined as the charge(on either plate) per unit potential difference and
depends essentially on the geometry of the system. In the above case the capacitance is
given by
A
C=o (5.1) d
in mks units, where A is the area(in meter2), d is the separation(in meters), 0 is a
constant (8.85 X 10−12 in MKS units) and the unit of capacitance is a farad.( Refer
to any standard text for the derivation of this formula).
A system, such as the above one, is called a condenser or, in modern
parlance, simply a capacitor. We shall adopt the modern usage. It must not be
assumed that a capacitor is always a set of plane parallel plates. Many other
geometrical arrangements may be used and often are more practical (See
Appendix I).

5.2 RC Circuit
The energy may be delivered by a source to a capacitor or the stored energy in a
capacitor may be released in an electrical network and delivered to a load. For
example, look at the circuit in Figure 5.2. If you turn the switch
Figure 5.2:

S1 on, the capacitor gets charged and when you turn on the switch S 2(S1 off) the
capacitor gets discharged through the load. The rate at which the charge
moves, i.e. the current; this, of course, will depend on the resistance offered. It
will be seen, therefore, that the rate of energy transfer will depend on RC where
C is the capacitance and R some effective resistance in the circuit. It can be
shown (Appendix II)that the charging of a capacitor can be represented by the
relation
q = qo(1 − e−t/RC) (5.2)

where q is the charge on the plates at time t; similarly, the discharge occurs according to
the relation
q = qoe−t/RC (5.3)
Thus, the rate at which the charge or discharge occurs depends on the ’RC’ of
the circuit. The exponential nature of the charging and discharging processes of
a capacitor is obvious from equation5.2 and 5.3. You would have ample
opportunity to learn more about it through the experiments that follow. From
equation 5.3 it can be seen that RC is the time during which the charge on the
capacitor drops to 1/e of the initial value. Further, since RC has dimensions of
time, it is called the time constant of the circuit.
In the following series of experiments, you will study the time variation of
charge, voltage and energy in an RC circuit.

5.3 The Network Board

The network board for these experiments consists of a number of resistors and
capacitors and two d-c meters. The centrally pivoted meters facilitate
measurements during both charging and discharging of a capacitor. Figure 5.3
shows the scheme of arrangement of these on the board and their connections
underneath it. The capacitors are of electrolytic type(since you need high
values of capacitance). These are meant for use with d-c power and great care
must be taken to connect them with the right polarity.
In order to make the time constant RC of the circuit large the resistors also
need to have high values and are, therefore, of carbon film type. Remember,
the values marked on both R and C are not absolutely dependable, The
resistance values are given within ±2% but the capacitance values have a
tolerance of ±10% or more.
A regulated d-c power-supply and a stopwatch are also provided along with the
board. Use of 20 to 25 volts from this supply would enable you
Figure 5.3:

to reduce the unwanted discharge through the voltmeter and considerably

improve the performance of the experiments. This would be obvious from the
 following discussion. If you look at Figure 5.4 relating to the discharging of a
capacitor, you would realize that on turning the switches S 1 and S2 on, the
capacitor would discharge through both the load R and the voltmeter V. If R v be
the resistance of the meter, the effective leakage resistance R’ would be given
by
Rv
R= R (5.4)
R + Rv
The unwanted discharge through the meter can, therefore, be reduced only by
making Rv much higher than R. This is accomplished in a simple way by using a
higher voltage source and employing a higher range of the meter for detection.
However, even this would not be adequate in case of smaller C values where
you should employ a sort of ’sampling method’ for voltage measurements. This
consists in turning on the switch S2 only at the instant

Figure 5.4:

when a measurement is to be made. You may find it difficult to read the meter,
say every 2 seconds or so. In that case, take one set of readings at
0.6.12.18...sec., then the next set of readings at 2,8,14,20,...sec. and so on until
you have a complete set of readings every 2 seconds.

5.4 Experiment A
To study the charging of a capacitor in an RC circuit

Take a resistor and a capacitor and complete the circuit as shown. Switch on the
stop watch and the circuit simultaneously. Read the voltmeter every 2 second
 until the voltmeter indicates a maximum value Vo*. You may find it difficult to
read the meter, say every 2 seconds or so. In that case, take one set of readings
at 0.6.12.18...sec., then the next set of readings at 2,8,14,20,...sec. and so on
until you have a complete set of readings every 2 seconds. Plot the voltage V c
across
the capacitor as a function of time.Figure 5.6. To analyse the results, proceed as
follows. The volage across a charging

*Theoretically speaking, in the case of a pure capacitor, the voltage across it should become
equal to the source voltage V o when the capacitor is fully charged. In practise, it is very seldom
so. This is because there is always a leakage charge across the capacitor

Figure 5.5:

capacitor is given by (see Appendix II).

V = Vo(1 − e−t/RC) (5.5)

where Vo is the maximum voltage. Eq 5.5 means that the capacitor charges
exponentially. Let us verify these facts. Rewriting Eq 5.5, we get

Vo − V = e−t/RC (5.6)
Vo
If we now define a time T at which the voltage is half the maximum i.e. V =
Vo/2, the above expression would reduce to

T = RC loge 2 = 2.30RC (5.7)

This clearly shows that for a given RC the time T should be constant. Choosing
values for (Vo − V )/Vo in geometric progression in steps of , the time intervals
ΔT can be easily shown to be equal. See Figure 5.6
 Eq 5.7 could be examined in yet another way. Make some measurements of
T for different RC combinations and plot these versus RC. In theory this should
be a straight line; but the rated values of the components( particularly C may be
as much as 10% off). Thus, the values as determined by you are probably more
reliable than the specified ones.
Alternatively, you may plot log(Vo − V ) against t to verify the Eq. 5.5 and the
exponential nature of charging of the capacitor. You ought to get a straight line
whose slope would give you the value of -1/RC.

Figure 5.6: Exponential charging of a capacitor

5.5 Experiment B
To study the discharging of a capacitor

As shown in Appendix II, the voltage across the capacitor during discharge can be
represented by
V = Voe−t/RC (5.8)

You may study this case exactly in the same way as the charging in Expt A.
However, remember that for the case of discharge (Vo − V )/Vo has to be
replaced by V/Vo and log(Vo − V ) by log V.(why?) You would find that for the
 same set of R and C the time T and hence the interval ΔT have the same value
as in Expt A.
In the circuit shown figure 5.7, if the switch is turned on at time t=0 and
turned off at t = t1, the voltage across the input terminals AB ideally behaves as
in
figure 5.8. Plot the output across PQ in the same manner. Once again, you
should train yourself to think of the RC combination as a ’box’ with input
terminals AB and output terminals PQ. Suppose the circuit in the above
question had been on for some time before the switch was suddenly
disconnected. Display both the input and the output(voltages) as a function of
time. Assume that the ’box’ is now wired as follows figure 5.9 Discuss the

Figure 5.7:

input and output when the switch is turned on and later, turned off.
Exercises pertaining to Expts A and B

1. Change the voltage Vo of the power supply and see if, for a given RC, the time
T or the time interval ΔT remains the same. Do you expect it to change?

2. For a known resistance, the time T determines the capacitance. Use this to
determine first C1 , then C2 andfinally the effective capacitance C with both C1
and C2 in parallel figure 5.10.
Verify the law C = C1 + C2 where C is the effective capacitance of the
combination in parallel. Try this with various resistors R.

3. Use exactly the same method(by measuring T ) to verify the law

1 1 1
= + + ......... (5.9) C C1 C2
for a set of capacitors in series with a resistor R [Figure 5.11]. Try with
Figure 5.8:

Figure 5.9:
Figure 5.10:

Figure 5.11:

different values of R as well.

4. Charge a set of capacitors connected in series.( Roughly, about 5 timesT will

charge the capacitors to the maximum voltage). Measure the voltage across
each and establish the law.

C1V1 = C2V2 = C3V3......... (5.10)

 5. Connect a set of capacitors in parallel. Measure the current through each of
them** after a fixed interval of time either during the charging or

** You will have to use the terminals provided to the left of the capacitors for connecting the
current meter in series with the capacitor individually

during the discharging operation and establish the relation:

C1 C2
= = ......... (5.11) i1 i2

(in verifying such relations as 2-9,2-10 and 2-11, make sure to measure the capacitance
yourself and not just trust the rated values).

6. With an RC time of around 30sec.,measure the voltage across R as afunction

of time while charging and discharging the capacitor. Pay particular attention
to the polarity of the voltage across R in each case. It is for this reason that
the voltmeter provided is centrally pivoted one. You would also notice that
with the passage of time the voltage across the resistor goes on falling until it
becomes zero when the capacitor is fully charged or discharged. If you use
two voltmeters and measure the voltages across R and C simultaneously you
can also verify that at all instants of time

VR + VC = Vo (5.12)

This is the verification of kirchoff’s law.

5.6 Experiment C
To study the current flow during charging and discharging of a capacitor

The current flowing through an RC circuit is given by (Appendix II)

I = Ioe−t/RC (5.13)

for the charging circuit and

I = −Ioe−t/RC (5.14)

for the discharging circuit. Thus the current follows the same behaviour as the
voltage with time except that its direction is opposite in the two cases.
Connecting the milliammeter in series with the resistor and the capacitor[Figure 5.12,
study the behaviour of the current in the two cases [Figure
 5.13]

Figure 5.12:

Pay particular attention to the reversing of the current in the circuit. This is
why a centrally pivoted current meter is provided.
Also, if you connect the voltmeter across R, in addition to the reversing of
polarity in the voltage across R, you would discover that the whole of the
voltage appears across it when you commence the charging or the discharging.
Also verify if the maximum current I o at the commencement of the charging and
the discharging is given by

Vo
Io = (5.15)
R
Further, you can see that at all instants of time

VR
I= (5.16)
R

5.7 Experiment D
To estimate the leakage resistance of a given capacitor
 Capacitors, once charged, do not maintain their charges indefinitely even when
their terminals are left disconnected. (But, they often maintain it for long times.
Do not poke your fingers at these terminals. You are always advised to
deliberately discharge the capacitor before leaving your experiment). A
capacitor loses its charge by leakage either through the dielectric between or
the insulators which holds the capacitor electrodes in place. Thus, strictly
speaking, any capacitor may be effectively represented as in figure 5.14 where

Figure 5.13: Behaviour of current in an RC circuit

RC representing the leakage resistance of the capacitor C, is of the order of a few

megaohms.
In the case of an ideal capacitor (R C = ∞) when fully charges, the voltage V C
across it should be equal to Vo figure 5.5 and the final value of the charging
current I in the circuit (figure 5.12) should be zero. In practice, as you would
discover during the course of these experiments, this is not the case. V C is
always less than Vo and the charging current never drops down to zero. It is easy
to understand these facts if you remember the true representation of a
capacitor (figure 5.14) Take a resistor R and a capacitor C so that the time
constant RC is of the order of 10sec. or more. Connect the in series with a
milliammeter [figure 5.15(a)] (note how the capacitor has been represented).
Turn on the switch and confine your attention to the current meter to observe
 how the charging current drops with time. After a time (5RC or more) the
capacitor is expected to be fully charged and the current to be zero. On

Figure 5.14: Representation of an actual capacitor

your meter it may indeeed appear as if the current has become zero but if you
replace the milliammeter by a microammeter of movement 50µA or less[Figure
5.15(b)] you would find a small steady current flowing persistently no matter
how long you wait. Measure this leakage current I C. Assuming the voltage across
the capacitor to be the same as Vo, the supply voltage( this is not quite correct),
calculate the order of the leakage resistance RC by
Vo
RC = (5.17)
IC
You must learn to make approximations like these(V C Vo) and understand
why such approximations do not matter when it is only the order of magnitude
of a quantity you are interested in.You should further, be able to appreciate the
difficulty in measurement of VC with a meter of finite resistance and hence the
importance of the approximation VC = Vo. However, if you are interested in
knowing the leakage resistance more precisely you may calculate it as follows:
Vo
RC = −R (5.18)
IC
Do you see how the approximation involved in Eq.5.17 is taken care of in
Eq.5.18 ?

If a capacitor of 50µf and a leakage resistance of 2megaohms, in how much time will
the charged capacitor, left to itself, lose half its charge?
You may now connect the voltmeter across C[figure 5.15 and see how the
leakage resistance RC changes. Try to verify your result by calculation.
A capacitor of 100µf has a leakage resistance of 5megaohms. A voltmeter of
resistance 500kilohms is connected across it to read the voltage. How much
time would it take for the voltage to fall to a value 1/e times the initial value?
Calculate first neglecting the leakage resistance and then taking it into account.

5.8 Experiment E
To measure the energy dissipated in charging a capacitor

Some energy is spent by the source in charging a capacitor. A part of it is

dissipated in the circuit and the remaining energy is stored up in the capacitor.
In this experiment we shall try to measure these energies.
With fixed values of C and R measure the current I as a function of time. The
energy dissipated in time dt is given by I2Rdt. The total energy dissipated is
given by

E = I2Rdt = R I2dt (5.19)

This integral can be evaluated very easily by graphical method as follows:

From the observed values of I plot I 2 versus t[figure 5.16]. The area under
the curve gives the value of the integral and R times this area is therefore a
measure of the energy dissipated in the circuit.
Does the energy dissipated depend on the value of the resistance? A
cursory glance at Eq5.19 would indicate that it should. You can test this as
follows:
Plot the I2, t curves for different values of the resistance R in the circuit and
measure the area in each case. You will discover an amazing resulthe energy
dissipated thus would turn out to be independent of the charging resistance.
In charging or discharging a capacitor through a resistor an energy equal to
CV 2 is dissipated in the circuit and is independent of the resistance in the
circuit. Can you devise an experiment to measure it calorimetrically? Try to
work out the values of R and C that you would have to employ in this
experiment. Remember, capacitors having a high value of capacitance cannot
withstand voltages higher than 50 to 60 volts and those which can withstand
higher
voltages have lower values for capacitance
Suppose the total resistance in the circuit including that of the connecting
wires is made zero, in what part of the circuit would the energy CV 2 be
dissipated now? How will you modify your above calorimetric measurement for
this case?
Repeating this for the case of discharging, you will find that again an equal
amount of energy is dissipated in the circuit. Since this energy in the case of
discharging comes from the capacitor you can draw a simple conclusion from
these experiments. Of the total energy drawn from the source in charging a
capacitor, half is dissipated in the circuit and half is stored up in the capacitor
irrespective of the value of the resistance. In other words, of the total energy
spent in charging a capacitor you can recover only half of it.

5.9 Experiment F
To study the dependence of the energy dissipated on C and V

For a fixed voltage Vo, the energy dissipated is proportional to the value of C i.e.
if E1, E2 etc. are the energies dissipated for capacitors C1,C2 etc., we shall have
E1 E2
= = ......... (5.20) C1 C2
Measure the energies E1,E2 etc. graphically(Expt E) and check this.
For a fixed capacitance C, estimate similarly the energy dissipated for
different values of the supply voltage V 1,V2, etc. You may vary V from 5 to 20
volts or so. Establish the relation
E1 E2
= = ......... (5.21)
2

V1 V 22
In fact, the energy dissipated is CV 2(Appendix II); see, if you can verify this in
all the experiments discussed.
The result that the energy dissipated( CV 2) in an RC circuit is independent
of R seems strange. Try and see if you can present an argument to justify this.
Discuss this in the limiting cases R→0 and R→∞ also.
5.10 Experiment E
To study the adiabatic charging of a capacitor

Is there no way of eliminating or reducing the dissipation of energy CV 2 in

charging of a capacitor? The answer is yes, there is a way. Instead of charging a
capacitor to the maximum voltage V0 in a single step if you charge it to this
voltage in small steps the dissipation of energy can be reduced. Theoretically
speaking, if the successive steps are infinitesimally small the dissipation can be
entirely eliminated. This is called adiabatic charging of a capacitor. You can
verify this with the following experiment.
Suppose you want to charge a capacitor C to a voltage V 0. If you do that in a
single step you know(ExptE) that an energy CV 2 would have to be dissipated in
the circuit. On the other hand, if you charge the capacitor to a voltage V 0/2 tp
V0 the total energy dissipated would be CV 2. (Why?) You can check this
experimentally. The trick is to first keep the charging voltage to V 0/2, let the
capacitor charge for a time much greater than RC of the circuit, disconnect the
power supply, increase its voltage to V0, reconnect it and let the capacitor
charge to V0. Plot I2, t curves for the two parts and find out the total energy
dissipated in the process. Compare this with the area of the curve obtained
when the capacitor is charged to V0 in a single step and you would find the
former to be roughly one-half the area in the latter case. The charging voltage
in the two cases can be represented as shown in figure 5.17]. Now think how
you can reduce this loss further. Check your answer experimentally.
A capacitor of 1000µf is connected in series with a resistor of 2kilohms.
Calculate the energy dissipated in charging it to 20volts in a single step. How
many equal steps will you have to employ to cut down this loss to one-tenth its
value? Show these steps graphically(as in figure ??) taking care to mark the
appropriate value of Δt.
Can you now think of the ideal charging method to reduce this loss to zero?
Would it be possible to accomplish this in practise?
APPENDIX-I
Capacitors 1.Paper and Other Capacitors

Commercially available capacitors come in various forms for use in simple

networks. A common one is the paper capacitor in which a pair of metal foils
sandwich a thin paper. The whole assembly is then rolled into a bundle, dipped
in wax and sealed against moisture. There may still be some leakage of charge
 through the paper particularly if the applied voltage is large. A practical
consideration for a capacitor is always the voltage it can withstand without
breakdown.
The capacitance of the system is somewhat increased when there is a
dielectric( such as paper) between the electrodes. Other dielectrics commonly
used are mica, ceramics and sometimes plastic films.
It can be seen that by reducing the distance between the electrodes one can
increase the capacitance; but one cannot do this indefinitely. For a given
voltage, electrical breakdown(i.e. current through the dielectric) occurs if the
distance is too small. For example, if air is the dielectric and the capacitor is to
withstand 100volts, a separation of at least 1/10 mm is required. The
capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor is given by
A
C=o (5.22) d
One can see from this relation( the reader is advised to do this arithmetic)
that no more than about 10pico-farad per sq.cm (1 pico-farad =10 −12farad) can
be achieved.
2.Electrolytic Capacitors

Some metals like aluminium, when placed in a suitable electrolyte and made
the positive electrode( i.e. aluminium is the positive electrode) from a thin film
(about 10−6cm) of oxide. This film has a very high resistance to a flow of current
in one direction(from aluminium towards electrode) and a very low one in the
reverse direction. Thus, provided we use the aluminium side as the positive
one, we can obtain fairly large capacitance, a microfarad per 10cm 2 area with
this kind of system when the aluminium and the electrolyte form the two
electrodes.
Even smaller film thicknesses can be made so that electrolytic capacitors can
achieve as high as 10−4farad for 10cm2. It is obvious that we cannot use an
electrolytic capacitor with a-c unless we ensure that its polarity would not
change.
Other limitations are that they have a larger leakage current than the
ordinary capacitors, their life is shorter, their capacitance may change
somewhat after a few months( even the values marked on the new ones may
vary by as much as 20%) and the working voltages for these are lower.
In all the circuits wherein these capacitors have been used they are represented as in
[figure 5.19], the curved line representing the negative can.
In using these electrolytic capacitors, remember to connect them with the right
polarity and always below the rated voltage of the capacitor.
 APPENDIX-II
Analysis of an RC circuit with a source of constant EMF

When a resistor and a capacitor are connected in series to a source of

voltage Vo, we have
Vc + VR = Vo (5.23)
where Vc and VR are the voltages across C and R. Writing
Q
Vc = (5.24)
C
and
dq
VR = RI = R (5.25)
dt
where q is the charge on the capacitor and I the current, we have

dq q Vo
+= (5.26) dt RC R
This equation is readily integrated after multiplying by the integrating factor
et/RC,

o
qet/RC = V et/RCdt (5.27)

R qet/RC = CVoet/RC + A (5.28)

where A is a constant.
For charging, we assume the initial condition q=0 at t=0 which establishes
the equation
q = qo(1 − e−t/RC) (5.29)

where we have put qo = CVo

Similarly, for discharging, we set q = qo = CVo at t=0 to give

q = qoe−t/RC) (5.30)

The potential across the capacitor(q/C) follows exactly the same

dependence on time as the charge. The current is
dq qo t/RC (5.31) I = = e− dt RC
 or
I = Ioe−t/RC (5.32)

for the charging circuit and

I
(5.33)
= −Ioe−t/RC
for the discharging circuit. Thus the current follows the same behaviour with time
except that the sign is reversed in the two cases.
When the source charges the capacitor, it does work. This work is simply

W = VoIdt (5.34)

since the rate of doing is VoI. Using equation(2.32), we have

∞ W = VoI VoIoe−t/RC (5.35)
since Vo = qCo and Io = RCqo
This can be written in either of the following forms:
q2
W = CVo2 = o
C (5.36)
An interesting point to note is this: when the capacitor has been charged to its
full potential Vo, it has an energy CVo2 stored in it. Thus an energy CVo2 has
been dissipated while charging in the resistive parts of the circuit.
 Figure 5.15:

Figure 5.16: R times the shaded area gives the energy dissipated
Figure 5.17: One step and two step charging voltage
 Figure 5.18:

Figure 5.19:

Figure 5.20: