Activities

1. First, simply experiment with the circuit by setting it to Play and then using the Charge and Discharge buttons. What is the emf of the battery? In other words, what is the value of the battery voltage?
2. If the resistor is a light bulb, what happens to the brightness of the bulb, as a function of time, after you press the "Charge" button? What happens to the brightness, as a function of time, after you press the "Discharge" button?
3. The Voltage vs. Time plot shows two different graphs. What does the black graph represent? What does the red graph represent?
4. On the Current vs. Time graph, when is the current shown as a positive value? When is the current shown as a negative value? What, physically, does the sign of the current represent?
5. What is the effect of adjusting the resistance? The capacitance? An RC circuit like this is characterized by a time constant, given by τ = RC. Does this definition of the time constant make sense, based on your observations?