Teaching RC and RL Circuits Using Computer–supported Experiments

Abstract

We suggest the study of the charging and discharging processes in the capacitor in an RC circuit and the rise and decay of current processes in an RL circuit using computer–interfaced experiments. This approach enables students to understand functions of RC and RL circuits through the visualisation of the processes, understand the use of computer interface for data collection, and speed up the data collection and their analyses. Using Excel for data analysis enables the verification of Kirchhoff's loop rule for the RC and RL circuits for each instant of time and the determination of time constants for the circuits through the graphical analyses.