Today, I introduced RC circuits by displaying the voltage across the capacitor as it charges and discharges. I share that when first-year physics students describe a graphical relationship as “exponential” they usually mean “quadratic.” Today, however, we can use that label correctly! The curve fit for an RC circuit is always fantastic.
Unfortunately, We ran short on time today, and students don’t have a strong understanding of what the time constant really means. I won’t be in the classroom tomorrow; so, we’ll see how they do on the activity which is to determine how adding a second capacitor in series or parallel to the first affects the behavior of the RC circuit and how we can model the equivalent capacitance.
I still need to finalize the lab practicum for this unit, but I want something involving RC circuits, time constants, and flashing LEDs!
##circuits