Montalbo, Rochelle L.

ECE-3201

January 23, 2015

Rating:
EXPERIMENT NO. 1

I.

OBJECTIVES:
1. To compare DC and AC voltages and currents
2. To study the voltages and current in an AC circuits

II.

DISCUSSION:
Alternating voltage is when a current changes direction as well as magnitude,
while pulsating direct current is when current varies in magnitude but never reverses in
direction of flow through a circuit.
The waveform of alternating currents may have different shapes and may be
periodic, which occur at regular time, and aperiodic, occur at random time. One type of
alternating current wave is the sine or sinusoidal wave.
The time period (T) of a wave determines how many waves occur per second.
Frequency (f) of the wave is the number of cycles completed in one second. Amplitude is
used to denote the magnitude of current or voltage change in a cycle or wave. Amplitude
sine waves can be expressed in several ways, (a) peak amplitude is when the
magnitude of the variation measured from horizontal axis of the wave to its highest peak,
(b) peak-to-peak amplitude is when the magnitude is measured from negative peak to
the highest positive peak, (c) average amplitude is obtained by averaging all
instantaneous values occurring during half an alternation, and (d) root mean square
(rms) or effective amplitude is when instantaneous value were squared before
averaging, the minus sign from the negative alternations would disappear.
Commercial power today is distributed as alternating current with a frequency of
60 Hz (cycles per second). An advantage of using alternating current is that its E/I ratio
can be changed with transformers, whereas with direct current this is not possible. In
additional, AC machines may be built in larger sizes and the cost of transmitting AC
power is lower.

III.

INSTRUMENTS AND COMPONENTS:

AC voltmeter
AC ammeter
Lamp, 220 V, 25 W
Lamp, 12 V, 25 W
3F capacitor
1 H inductor

IV.

PROCEDURE:
1. Connect the 25 W lamps across 12 V AC and 12 DC, which lamp is brighter?
2. Connect the circuit shown in Fig. 10.2. the source is 220 V AC.
Measure and record the voltage across the lamp and the capacitor.
Measure and record the current.
3. Change the source in the step 2 to 220 V DC. Compare the brightness of the lamp in
step 2 to 3.
4. Connect the circuit shown in Fig. 10.3. measure and record the voltages across the
lamp and the inductor. Measure and record the current.

5. Connect the circuit shown in Fig. 10.4 Measure and record the voltages across the
two lamps. Measure and record and the current.
6. Using a VOM, measure the resistance of the inductor and capacitor
V.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:

VI.

DATA AND RESULTS:

Step 1:
Step 2: E (lamp) = 175 V, E (capacitor) = 158 V, I = 0.06 A
Step 3: Theres no light in DC source
Step 4: E (lamp) = 233 V, E (capacitor) = 28 V, I = 0.07 A
Step 5: E (10 W lamps) = 164 V, E (5W lamps) = 67 V, I= 0.08 A
Step 6: R (inductor) = 45.8 , R (capacitor) = infinite

VII.

PROBLEMS
1. Describe the differences between the current that exist in the wires leading to a
capacitor when these wires are connected to a) a DC source and b) an AC source.
a) When a capacitor is in DC voltage, current leaves the source and charges the
capacitor. A large current initially exists and decays to zero current. This is why an
ohmmeter measures infinite resistance. It uses a small DC voltage and measures
the corresponding current. If the corresponding current is zero, the resistance is
infinite. In the case of a capacitor, it is eventually zero current.
b) When connected to an AC voltage source, the capacitor and the source
resistance of the source form a low pass filter. At frequencies low enough (below
Capacitive Reactance), the voltage across the capacitor is nearly the source voltage.
At frequencies near capacitive reactance, the filter shifts the phase of the signal 45
degrees and reduces the amplitude to 70.7% of the original amplitude. At high
frequencies, the capacitor starts behaving like a direct connection, and the voltage
drop approaches zero.
2.

Explain why the resistance of the capacitor is infinite when measured with an
ohmmeter.
Because you are charging the capacitor with the test voltage of the meter when it
is set on resistance, the capacitor will climb in resistance reading until it levels off
then flip flop your leads and it will decay

3. A resistor and capacitor are connected in parallel and the combination is connected
to 120 V DC source. Determine the voltages across the resistor and capacitor.

A resistor and capacitor is connected in parallel, therefore the voltage across

each component is equal to DC source which is 120 V.
4. A 60 Hz AC circuit has a voltage of 120 V and a current of 6 A (effective value). What
are the peak to peak values of this voltage and current?
Peak-to-peak Value (current) =

( ( 2 ) ( I ( rms ) ) ) (2)

Peak-to-peak Value (current) =

( ( 2 ) ( 6 ) ) (2)

Peak-to-peak Value (current) =

12 2

Peak-to-peak Value (current) =

( ( 2 ) ( V ( rms ) ) ) (2)

Peak-to-peak Value (current) =

( ( 2 ) ( 120 ) ) (2)

Peak-to-peak Value (current) =

240 2

5. A capacitor is frequently placed across 110V line to reduce the noise in radios. What
is the smallest voltage rating such a capacitor have?
The radio has coils inside it (which are inductances); the capacitor is put so that
at a certain frequency, Resonance occurs between L & C (inductance and
capacitance). When resonance occurs the capacitive effect cancels the inductive
effect so noise is suppressed. The net impedance is purely resistive.
VIII.

CONCLUSION
Alternating current describes the flow of charge that changes direction periodically. As
a result, the voltage level also reverses along with the current. Rather than oscillating back
and forth, DC provides a constant voltage or current.
The voltage of alternating current can be easily controlled with transformers; this is the
type of electricity generated by power stations. The transformers raise the voltage to make it
easier to transmit over long distances, and then lower the voltage for safer use in homes
and buildings.