Physics capacitors in Series and In Parallel Lab Report-ACCHS .

Lab 3: Capacitors in Series and in Parallel If you have not already done so, please be sure to read the “Introduction to Capacitor Circuits”. Part 1: Single Capacitor You are given the following data (measured charge and voltage) for a capacitor that has been wired to a voltage source. Voltage (Volts) 1.5 3.0 4.5 6.0 7.5 9.0 Charge (microCoulombs) 33.66 68.64 97.02 128.0 166.7 198.0 1. Create a graph with charge (in Coulombs) on the y-axis and voltage on the x-axis. Then use the slope of the graph to determine the value of the capacitor. Include a screenshot of your graph. Excel note: after you get the trendline for your graph, and the equation for the trendline, right click on the trendline equation, and then click on Format Trendline Label. In the category, change this to “scientific” and display 3 decimal places. You will want to follow these steps throughout this lab with each graph. 2. The theoretical value of this capacitor, as read from its’ packaging, is 22 microCoulombs. Calculate the percent error. Lab 3: Capacitors in Series and in Parallel Part 2: Parallel Capacitor Circuit Now, you have a circuit with two capacitors, connected in parallel to a voltage source. For each, you measure the applied voltage, and the charge on each capacitor when fully charged, resulting in the measurements below: Voltage on Capacitor 1 (Volts) 1.5 3.0 4.5 6.0 7.5 9.0 Charge on Capacitor 1 (microCoulombs) 36.3 74.1 106 136 187 220 Voltage on Capacitor 2 (Volts) 1.5 3.0 4.5 6.0 7.5 9.0 Charge on Capacitor 2 (microCoulombs) 77.0 128 211 290 367 449 3. For capacitor 1, create a graph with charge (in Coulombs) on the y-axis and voltage on the xaxis. Then use the slope of the graph to determine the value of the capacitor. Include a screenshot of your graph. Lab 3: Capacitors in Series and in Parallel 4. For capacitor 2, create a graph with charge (in Coulombs) on the y-axis and voltage on the xaxis. Then use the slope of the graph to determine the value of the capacitor. Include a screenshot of your graph. 5. Next, create a data table for the equivalent circuit, with the total voltage and the total charge that correspond to those voltages. Total Voltage (Volts) Total Charge (Coulombs) 6. Create a graph with charge (in Coulombs) on the y-axis and voltage on the x-axis. Then use the slope of the graph to determine the value of the capacitor. Include a screenshot of your graph. Lab 3: Capacitors in Series and in Parallel 7. For a parallel circuit, how do we calculate the equivalent capacitance? 8. Using the values of capacitance that you found from the graphs of capacitor 1 and capacitor 2 above, what would the equivalent capacitance be? 9. When you have capacitors in parallel, is the parallel capacitance always greater, similar to, or less than the values on the individual capacitors? Part 3: Series Capacitor Circuit Now, you have a circuit with two capacitors, connected in series to a voltage source. For each, you measure the applied voltage, and the charge on each capacitor when fully charged, resulting in the measurements below: Voltage on Capacitor 1 (Volts) 0.55 1.04 1.67 2.16 2.56 3.21 Charge on Capacitor 1 (microCoulombs) 47.2 94.5 142 189 236 283 Voltage on Capacitor 2 (Volts) 0.98 2.03 2.81 3.82 4.83 5.91 Charge on Capacitor 2 (microCoulombs) 47.2 94.5 142 189 236 283 10. For capacitor 1, create a graph with charge (in Coulombs) on the y-axis and voltage on the xaxis. Then use the slope of the graph to determine the value of the capacitor. Include a screenshot of your graph. Lab 3: Capacitors in Series and in Parallel 11. For capacitor 2, create a graph with charge (in Coulombs) on the y-axis and voltage on the xaxis. Then use the slope of the graph to determine the value of the capacitor. Include a screenshot of your graph. 12. Next, create a data table for the equivalent circuit, with the total voltage and the total charge that correspond to those voltages. Total Voltage (Volts) Total Charge (Coulombs) 13. Create a graph with charge (in Coulombs) on the y-axis and voltage on the x-axis. Then use the slope of the graph to determine the value of the capacitor. Include a screenshot of your graph. Lab 3: Capacitors in Series and in Parallel 14. For a series circuit, how do we calculate the equivalent capacitance? 15. Using the values of capacitance that you found from the graphs of capacitor 1 and capacitor 2 above, what would the equivalent capacitance be? 16. When you have capacitors in series, is the parallel capacitance always greater, similar to, or less than the values on the individual capacitors? Part 4: Mystery Capacitor The multimeters that we have in the lab are only able to read capacitance values that are less than or equal to 100 microFarads. We have two capacitors that we tried to measure the capacitance of, and they were too large for our meters. 17. Should we wire these capacitors in series, or in parallel, in order to be able to do measurements to figure out the capacitance of each? Explain why. For this, we will do just one measurement, and do a calculation based on the values rather than using slopes. Using the multimeter, we measured the voltages on both of the capacitors, and the equivalent capacitance for the two mystery capacitors, now wired in series. Total voltage supplied by battery Equivalent capacitance measured by meter 6.00 volts 73.3 microFarads 18. Based on these values, calculate the total charge on each capacitor. Show your work. Lab 3: Capacitors in Series and in Parallel 19. What is the charge on each capacitor? Now, you measure the voltage on each of the two capacitors: Voltage on capacitor 1 Voltage on capacitor 2 4.00 Volts 2.00 Volts 20. Calculate the capacitance for capacitor 1. Show your work. 21. Calculate the capacitance for capacitor 2. Show your work.