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nautica
Feb8-04, 07:57 PM
A capacitor, in a series with a 720 ohm resistor, is being charged. At the end of 10 ms its charge is half the final value. The capacitance is about:

a)9.6 uF
b)14 uF
c)20 uF
d)7.2 uF
e)10F

Now how in the heck and I suppose to know this one. I know ohms law and I know how to find capacitance. But what does either of these has to do with time?

gnome
Feb8-04, 09:35 PM
The rate at which a capacitor is charged in an RC circuit is:

q(t) = Q_{max}(1-e^\frac{-t}{RC})

You know t and R.
You don't know q(t) or Qmax but you do know the ratio of each to the other, and that's all you need to solve for C.