Recent Posts Tagged With 'rc and l r time constants'

• Solving for unknown time

  Posted on Sunday July 27th, 2008 at 02:05 in rc and l r time constants

  Sometimes it is necessary to determine the length of time that a reactive circuit will take to reach a predetermined value. This is especially true in cases where we're designing an RC or L/R circuit to perform a precise timing function. To calculat...

• Complex circuits

  Posted on Sunday July 27th, 2008 at 02:04 in rc and l r time constants

  What do we do if we come across a circuit more complex than the simple series configurations we've seen so far? Take this circuit as an example: The simple time constant formula (τ=RC) is based on a simple series resistance connected to the c...

• Complex voltage and current calculations

  Posted on Saturday July 26th, 2008 at 23:52 in rc and l r time constants

  There are circumstances when you may need to analyze a DC reactive circuit when the starting values of voltage and current are not respective of a fully "discharged" state. In other words, the capacitor might start at a partially-charged condition i...

• Why L/R and not LR?

  Posted on Saturday July 26th, 2008 at 23:51 in rc and l r time constants

  It is often perplexing to new students of electronics why the time-constant calculation for an inductive circuit is different from that of a capacitive circuit. For a resistor-capacitor circuit, the time constant (in seconds) is calculated from the ...

• Voltage and current calculations

  Posted on Saturday July 26th, 2008 at 23:51 in rc and l r time constants

  There's a sure way to calculate any of the values in a reactive DC circuit over time. The first step is to identify the starting and final values for whatever quantity the capacitor or inductor opposes change in; that is, whatever quantity the react...

• Inductor transient response

  Posted on Saturday July 26th, 2008 at 23:50 in rc and l r time constants

  Inductors have the exact opposite characteristics of capacitors. Whereas capacitors store energy in an electric field (produced by the voltage between two plates), inductors store energy in a magnetic field (produced by the current through wire). T...

• Capacitor transient response

  Posted on Saturday July 26th, 2008 at 23:49 in rc and l r time constants

  Because capacitors store energy in the form of an electric field, they tend to act like small secondary-cell batteries, being able to store and release electrical energy. A fully discharged capacitor maintains zero volts across its terminals, and a ...

• Electrical transients

  Posted on Saturday July 26th, 2008 at 23:48 in rc and l r time constants

  This chapter explores the response of capacitors and inductors to sudden changes in DC voltage (called a transient voltage), when wired in series with a resistor. Unlike resistors, which respond instantaneously to applied voltage, capacitors and indu...