Charging/Discharging RC circuits

Developed by Chris Orban

This exercise illustrates a charging and discharging

capacitor. This process takes time and how much time it takes depends on the resistance
and the capacitance. Normally it would require calculus to understand these circuits, but
we can use some algebra and a computer program instead!
This exercise will use a programming language called p5.js that is very similar to C and C++
programming. (Note: If you are familiar with C or C++ the main difference you will see is
that there is no main() function and instead the draw() function serves this role.)
Importantly, this exercise can be completed using any computer or chromebook
without downloading any software!
This exercise is designed for an algebra-based physics class at the college or high school
level. It may also be useful for calculus-based physics for non-majors (e.g. engineering &
science majors). This exercise is part of a series of exercises developed by Prof. Chris
Orban.
There are pre-and-post assessment questions associated with this exercise (not available
here) that are being used in an educational research study. If interested to collaborate on
that study please e-mail Prof. Chris Orban ([email protected]). The first paper from
this study is available at this link, the second paper which discusses the electromagnetism
exercises is available at this link

Exercises
This programming lab involves circuits with a battery, a capacitor and one or two resistors
like the circuit you see below.

Step 1. Think about this circuit! What happens when the switch in the middle is connected
to the battery? What happens when it is connected to the resistor instead?
Step 2. Here is a demo of what happens when the switch is moved to the battery and back
to the resistor. Try it out! Flip the switch to the battery by pressing "c" on the keyboard.
Move the switch back to the resistor by pressing "d". Watch what happens to the charge on
the capacitor and the current through the resistor. Feel free to flip the switch back and
forth. Press spacebar to reset the plot in the bottom right.
Step 3. In the demo, why does the charge on the capacitor instantly jump to its maximum
value whenever you connect the battery? Would the charge on the capacitor change this
quickly in real life? Answer these questions in 2-3 sentences in what you turn in.
Step 4. Open up the code in an editor
Click on this link to open up the code in an editor!
Important! Create an account with the editor or sign in to an existing account. Then click
"Duplicate" so you can have your own version of the code!
Consider the following code from the demo:
Note that the current (I) in this case is the current through the resistor. The current
through the resistor is zero when the switch is connected to the battery. But when the
switch is moved to connect the capacitor and the resistor, there will be a current through
the resistor. The only problem is that each unit of charge that leaves the capacitor to travel
through the resistor will decrease the charge on the capacitor. This is why there is a minus
sign in this line of code: Q += -I*dt; This makes the capacitor like a battery but with a
steadily decreasing voltage. This is because the voltage across the capacitor is Q/C and if
the capacitor loses charge, the voltage across it will decrease until Q is basically zero.
Step 5. Let's make the circuit more realistic like the circuit drawn below:

Now change the code that loads the pictures of the circuit. This happens in the preload
function. Just add _v2 to the filenames like this:
Run the code just to make sure that the new images show up.
You have probably noticed that R2 is set to zero near the beginning of the code:
We need to set R2 to some value other than zero near the beginning of the code where the
variables are initialized. A good value to use is R2 = 3.
Go ahead and make this change before moving on to the next step.
Step 6. Now we want to modify the if statement we talked about in Step 4. Change your if
statement to look like the code below. Your job will be to fill in the ???
Figure out what should be in the ??? in the code above! If you do this correctly, your code
should behave like this
Comments:
Keep in mind that this code will be run over and over! Quantities like Q and I will change
with every iteration.
The code for when the battery is connected has changed substantially. Whereas before,
Vcap is just equal to the potential of the battery (Vbatt), now the code looks more like the
code in the else statement except that there isn't a minus sign in this line of code: Q += I*dt;.
The capacitor is charging up, instead of discharging.
The code for when the battery is connected is supposed to go like this: (1) The current in
R2 is determined from the potential of the battery and the potential across the capacitor.
(2) The current places more charge on the capacitor. (3) The potential across the capacitor
increases because of the increased charge. Repeat!
Step 7. As you may know, the characteristic decay time of a discharging RC circuit is given
by τ =¿RC
A familiar example is when you unplug a wireless router to reset it you are supposed to
wait about 30 seconds before plugging it in again. You might think that as soon as you
disconnect the power source the charge on the capacitors in the device would quickly
dissipate, but what happens is a lot like the circuit shown here. Even though the battery
isn't connected when the switch is thrown to the right, the charge doesn't dissipate
immediately. Increase either or both the capacitance of the capacitor and the resistance of
R1. Run the program to confirm that it takes longer for the charge do dissipate as expected.
Step 8. Use print("Q = ",Q); and print("I = ",I); to check if your code is giving the correct
values for the max charge on the capacitor when the switch is connected to the battery. It is
always important to check the results of your computer simulations to see that it gives you
the answer you expect! The code for print("Q = ",Q); and print("I = ",I); is already in the
code but it is commented out. All you need to do is remove the // in order to get it to work.
Write down your calculation for the max charge on the capacitor and write down what it
was measured to be!
Just for fun: Step 9. Wouldn't it be interesting to add an inductor to the circuit? Play around
with this RLC circuit! Does the code make sense? How do the values of R, L and C affect the
result? Here is a link if you just want to run the code in the browser without seeing the
code
How to get full credit for this programming lab!!!
1. Comment on the demo (Step 3)
Why does the charge on the capacitor instantly jump to its max value whenever the battery
is connected? Would this happen in real life? Why?
2. Modify your code as described in Step 5
Just follow the directions in Step 5. There is no guesswork here.
3. Correctly modify the if statement to calculate the current in R2 (Step 6)
The comments may help you do this. Just think of it as a homework problem. What is the
current in R2 as a function of Vbat, Vcap and R2?
4. Choose larger values for C and R1 and check that it takes longer for the capacitor to
discharge (Step 7)
Write down the values for C and R1 that you chose and say something like "Yes, it really did
take longer" in what you turn in. You can also change R1 if you are curious. Does this affect
the discharge time?
5. Quantitative number for the max charge on the capacitor (Step 8)
Write down your calculation for the max charge on the capacitor and write down what it
was measured to be.