Question

What is the time constant of a series circuit where the capacitor is 0.330μF and the resistor is 10Ω ?

Answer 1

Answer:

$\tau=3.3*10^{-6}s$

Explanation:

Take at look to the picture I attached you, using Kirchhoff's current law we get:

$C*\frac{dV}{dt}+\frac{V}{R}=0$

This is a separable first order differential equation, let's solve it step by step:

Express the equation this way:

$\frac{dV}{V}=-\frac{1}{RC}dt$

integrate both sides, the left side will be integrated from an initial voltage v to a final voltage V, and the right side from an initial time 0 to a final time t:

$\int\limits^V_v {\frac{dV}{V} } =-\int\limits^t_0 {\frac{1}{RC} } \, dt$

Evaluating the integrals:

$ln(\frac{V}{v})=e^{\frac{-t}{RC} }$

natural logarithm to both sides in order to isolate V:

$V(t)=ve^{-\frac{t}{RC} }$

Where the term RC is called time constant and is given by:

$\tau=R*C=10*(0.330*10^{-6})=3.3*10^{-6}s$