AC and RLC Circuits

The day began with an introduction to AC circuits and RLC circuits and finding how current and voltage behave throughout using Logger Pro. The result of the graph we acquired is shown below.

The introduction to AC circuits are shown below on how we get the root mean square voltage and how it can be used to solve for the voltage needed in an AC circuit.

The set up of how the R circuit in AC looked like is shown below.

Using the information about AC circuits that we had just learned and using the graph from Logger Pro, we were able to find the needed values to fill in the table below.

We then moved on to the behavior of the voltage and current in a perfect AC circuit as shown in the hand-drawn graph below. We also did some more calculations regarding root mean square values of current and voltage.

We then moved on to a circuit in AC involving a capacitor. The graph of what the voltage and current looked like is shown below. The set up was pretty much the same as an R circuit in AC but with a capacitor hooked up.

The results from our data is shown below.

We also did some more problems with AC circuits  involving frequency, inductance and finding the value of X sub L.

We finally moved on to a complete RLC circuit within AC. The table of our values are shown below.

The set up shown below included everything connected in series.

The graph from Logger Pro is also shown below and shows how the current and voltage still oscillate when in AC.

Overall, the main focus of the class was to see how the current and voltage behaved in AC and how putting each of the components including capacitors, resistors and inductors affect the outcome of the voltage and current.