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Institute of Physics
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Episode 130: R-C Circuits and Other Systems
From the Institute of Physics, this learning episode looks at energy stored in capacitors and springs as well as the comparison between radioactive decay and a capacitor's discharge. It allows students to explore the concepts of energy storage and exponential decrease in a range of situations.
In comparing the energy stored by capacitors and springs, students see that graphs of ‘charge against pd’ for a capacitor and ‘force against extension’ for a spring are both straight lines through the origin. For capacitors, the energy stored is the area under the charge/pd graph. A similar argument can be used to show that the energy stored in a spring is the area under the force/extension graph.
When comparing exponential decay for radioactivity and capacitors, students see similarities in the patterns for two very different physical processes by comparing the graphs of the decays.
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R-C circuits and other systems 181.5 KB
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