Discharging an electrolytic capacitor via resistors with Cobra SMARTsense

Principle
In this experiment, voltage curves during the discharge process of an electrolytic capacitor in an RC circuit are measured. Different resistors are used to investigate the relationship between the half-life and the respective resistance values.

Tasks

1. Record the discharge curve of an electrolytic capacitors and three different resistors as a function of time.
2. Determine the half-life of the capacitor.
3. Identify the correlation between resistance and half-life.

Learning objectives
Students learn to understand the discharge process of a capacitor in an RC circuit and recognize its dependence on different resistance values. They also determine the relationship between the half-life of the discharge process and the resistance.

Benefits

• Simple setup in just a few minutes.
• High-resolution data acquisition (up to 10 kHz).
• Improvement of digital media literacy.
• Safe (RiSU-compliant) power supply unit.