You are given two sheets of materials, a and b. each sheet is 10 microns thick. material a is an electrical conductor with a resistivity of 2.6 x 106 .cm. material b is an insulator (dielectric) with a dielectric constant (also called relative permittivity) of 210. cut the sheets up to get squares that are 15 cms on each side. you can then metallize both sides of materials a and b to make electrical contacts to them. this can be done, for example, by depositing a layer of aluminum on them using a sputter coater. next, you connect wires to the metallized faces to form electrical connections. with material a you get a resistor with this construction whereas with material b you get a parallel plate capacitor. next connect the two passive components in series to form an rc circuit. this can now be connected to a 3v battery so as to form a closed circuit.
1) draw a circuit drawing of this arrangement.
2) for the resistor, calculate the value of the resistance in k
3) for the capacitor, calculate the value of the capacitance in f.
4) what is the time constant of the series rc circuit?
5) approximately how long will it take to charge the capacitor to 3v?
6) when fully charged, how much energy will be stored in the capacitor?
series rc circuits are frequently used for timing applications and for generating periodic waveforms. a capacitor can also be used to store electrical energy for various applications, such as driving camera flash.
note: the permittivity of free space, 0, has the value 8.8 x 10-12 f/m.