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Capacitors 3

Capacitor Discharge

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Rate of Discharge
We measure discharge using a circuit like this:

R
C

Suppose we discharge
the capacitor for a short
amount of time t
We know that:

m
A

Q It
So we can write:

Q It
At the moment of discharge, a current I flows:

Q
I
t

V
I
R
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And we can rearrange to:

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Rate of discharge

Fractional Discharge
We can write the rate of discharge in
calculus notation as:

dQ
I
dt
Since:

Q CV
Which we can substitute:

V
R

dQ
Q

dt
CR
This is a differential equation of the form:

We can rewrite this as

dx
kx
dt

dQ
V

dt
R
The minus sign tells us that the
charge is decreasing

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From basic capacitance we know

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k is the fraction by
which x decreases

Therefore:

dQ
1

Q
dt
CR

1/CR is the fraction by


which Q decreases

Charging and Discharging a


Capacitor
We can plot a graph using a circuit like this:

R
C

m
A

The voltage, current, and charge all decay


exponentially during the capacitor discharge.

10/14/16

Leeds City College

If we discharge a capacitor,
we find that the charge
decreases by the same
fraction for each time
interval.
If it takes time t for the
charge to decay to 50 % of
its original level, we find that
the charge after another t
seconds is 25 % of the
original (50 % of 50 %).
This time interval is called
the half-life of the decay.
The decay curve against
time is called an
exponential decay.
4

Exponential Discharge
Graph
We should note the following about the graph:

Its shape is unaffected by the voltage.


The half life of the decay is independent of
the voltage.

There is an important quantity called the time


constant
The time constant is the product of the
resistance and the capacitance.
Time constant = RC. Units are seconds (s).
It may seem strange that ohms farads =
seconds, but if you go to base units, thats
what you find.
10/14/16

Leeds City College

Exponential Discharge
Capacitors lose a constant fraction of
their charge in each time interval.
If the capacitor loses 10 % of its
charge in the first second, it will have
90 % left over after 1 s. After 2 s it will
have 81 % of its original charge. After
3 s, it will be 72.9 and so on.
This means that the decay is
exponential and fits the equation:

Q Q0 e

Q charge (C)
Q0 original charge (C)
e exponential number (2.718)
t time (s)
RC time constant (s).
The same equation can be
written for the current:

I I 0e

And the voltage:

RC

V V0 e
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RC

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RC

RC and Half Life


If we discharge the capacitor for
RC seconds, we get:

V V0 e

RC

RC

V0 e 1

The half life is the time taken for


the capacitor to discharge to 50 %
of its original voltage.
t
V 1
1/ 2
e RC
V0 2

e-1 = 0.368.
Therefore:

Get rid of e by taking natural logs

V 0.37V0

t1/ 2
ln 0.5
RC

Therefore:
So the time constant is the
time taken for the capacitor t1/ 2 RC ln 0.5 RC 0.693 0.693RC
to fall to 37 % of its original
Half life is 69 % of the time constant
voltage.
10/14/16

Leeds City College

Exponential Charge
In these graphs, the charge
and the voltage show an
exponential rise.
The current starts off high,
but gets lower. It shows an
exponential decay.
For interest only (its not on
the syllabus):
t

V V0 1 e RC

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