DC Circuits Lab: RC Circuit

This is the video for the RC circuit part of the DC Circuit lab for PHY 119 and PHY 152 at Finger Lakes Community College.
RC circuits combine a resistor and a capacitor. This combination causes a characteristic charging or discharging behaviour based on the time constant, τ = R C.
The video shows how you can set up a simple RC circuit on a breadboard and measure the voltage and current while the circuit charges or discharges.
In circuits that only contain resistors, the current is pretty much full blast or turned off completely. The time constant causes the current to start high and die off while charging. The voltage starts low and rises to a maximum. A larger time constant increases the charging time.
You can use this video to record data on the voltage and current in this type of a circuit.

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