BRAINCAKEDischarging a Capacitor through a Fixed Resistor
The diagram below shows a capacitor charging-discharging circuit. When the switch is moved to the left the battery charges the capacitor. When it is moved to the right the capacitor discharges through the resistor. Because the capacitor and resistor are in parallel the current through the resistor decreases as the potential difference across both decreases. The rate of change of charge, current and potential difference is exponential.
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Key terms in this lesson
- capacitor
- A component that stores electric charge, consisting of two conducting plates separated by an insulator, called a dielectric.
More in Capacitors
- Use of Capacitors
- Energy Stored in a Charged Capacitor
- Measuring the Energy Stored in a Charged Capacitor.
- Energy stored in a Thundercloud
- Exponential Decay.
- The Time Constant RC
- Measurement with Oscilloscope. Capacitor Smoothing
- Charging a Capacitor through a fixed resistor
All 12 lessons in Capacitors · All OCR A-level Physics topics