The mechanisms and properties of capacitors were
examined. Three experiments were conducted: physical analysis of a capacitor
through dissection, measuring the total capacitance of two capacitors arrange
in series and in parallel circuits and measuring the voltage of an energized
capacitor. It was found out that a capacitor is composed of a dielectric
compressed by two metal plates, the total capacitance in a parallel connection
is the summation of the capacitance of each capacitor present in the circuit
while the total capacitance in a series connection is the inverse sum of the
reciprocals of the capacitance of each capacitor and that the ability of a
capacitor to be energized is a bounded exponential growth.
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| Capacitors |
The experiment consists of three parts. In
the first part of the experiment, a cylindrical plate capacitor was dissected
and examined. There were three fragments found inside a capacitor all of which
were sketched and named.
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| Cross section of a capacitor |
The second part of the experiment is the study of the behavior of
capacitors in a circuit in series and in parallel arrangement. The group
measured the capacitance of two different capacitors and arranged them first in
series, then in parallel. The total capacitance of both set-ups was gathered
and recorded.
The third experiment dealt with the capability
of a capacitor to store energy and how much voltage runs across it through time.
A circuit composed of a capacitor, power supply and a resistor was set. Five
circuit combinations were made. Each one differed by an increase of the
resistance which was made by adding another resistor. A voltmeter was connected
to each combination for the recording of the voltages. From zero volts stored,
the capacitor was energized to maximum capacity. Using a stopwatch, the
increase of voltage through time in five (5) second intervals was taken. These
served as points for the plot of voltage across the capacitor as a function of
time. The same process was applied for all combinations.
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