This simulation shows power boxes for a series RC circuit. The concept of power boxes was introduced in a September 2018 article in The Physics Teacher, by Daryl McPadden, Jason Dowd, and Eric Brewe, titled "Power Boxes: New Representation for Analyzing DC Circuits".

This simulation shows the power boxes for a circuit with a resistor in series with a capacitor. The capacitor is initially uncharged. At the top left, the black region on the power box shows the power input to the circuit by the battery. On the right, we see (individually) the power dissipated as thermal energy and/or light by the resistor / light bulb and the power that is adding to the stored energy in the capacitor. Note the thick black line at the bottom of the capacitor power box, to indicate that there is still a current in the bottom wire in the circuit, even though the voltage there is zero.

The power box at the bottom left is a summary for the circuit, showing an overview of the power in the circuit.

Adjust the sliders, to see the impact on the power boxes of adjusting the battery voltage, the resistance, and the capacitance.

Simulation written by Andrew Duffy, and first posted on 11-23-2018.
Amended 12-05-2018 to display time and a thick voltage line on the vertical axes (changes suggested by Daryl McPadden)

The counter has been running on this page since 11-23-2018. The number of people accessing the page since then is: