Current Leakage

Current Leakage

• Objective
• Calculations
• Measurements
• Conclusion

Objective
   The purpose of this lab was to investigate the rate of current leakage in a RC circuit.

Calculations
   

Measurements

       The data was processed in a google drive sheet. We would isolate, as closely as possible, the decay of the voltage in the circuit and disregard the steady state we had while charging. 

Part A

Part B

Part C

       

Conclusion

The estimate of Tau is 1/.0431 when the voltage is in the proper polarity of the cap and 1/.0432 when the voltage is opposite polarity of the cap. I know the lab was supposed to show how the tau was different between the two conditions. What we got was a very slight difference.. Perhaps there was some confounding variable in the experiment. My first guess is to say the lower 5 volts was too small to see a large change between the two taus.