LAB 8 RC CIRCUITS Purpose You will study the behavior of a circuit with a resistor and a capacitor in series. Pre-lab Exercises These questions must be answered and turned in when you come to lab. This will help you better understand the material in the Theory section. 1. By writing the units for resistance and capacitance in base SI units, show that the time constant RC has units of seconds, as expected. 2. What is the time constant for a series RC circuit hooked up to E = 15 V when the resistance is given to be 50 kN and the capacitance is given by 4400 pF? Give your answer in microseconds (us). [Recall 1 pF = 10-12 F and 1 us = 10-6 s.] %3D %3D %3D 3. How does the time constant change if we were to halve the emf? Theory A capacitor is a device that can store electric charge. It often consists of two conducting plates arated by a small gap. When a capacitor is connected to an emf, a large current initially flows, capacitor then is that it opposes rapid changes of