Inductors and capacitors are two basic circuit elements capable of storing energ

y, and the interesting region of study are the transient phenomena associated wi
th how they acquire or release it. In a closed circuit, inductors and capacitors
charge up to full capacity once an external voltage or current source is introd
uced - otherwise known as the step response. If the source were removed and anot
her switch closed to a resistive circuit, this energy would be released until de
pleted - the natural response. When an inductor and capacitor are neither chargi
ng or discharging - which is the case when an external source has been connected
or disconnected for a long time - one gets the steady state response.
These phenomena can then be described mathematically by a simple following of Ki
rchoff's Voltage and Current Laws. Simple RL and RC circuits can be described by
first order differential equations, while the incorporation of all components i
n an RLC circuit requires use of second order differential equations.
To demonstrate the transient phenomena associated with a circuit governed by fir
st order differential equations, a simple RL series circuit was constructed usin
g an 8.2mH inductor and a 10 ohm resistor. These were then set to a power supply
at an input of 10 V. Moreover, two oscilloscope probes were attached the follow
ing way: a.) CH1 was connected across the power supply to determine reliability
of input voltage readings across time, and b.) CH2 was connected across the indu
ctor to measure the voltage step response. The simplified diagram of the circuit
appears below.
To demonstrate transient phenomena associated with a circuit governed by second
order differential equations, a series RLC circuit was assembled using a 10uF ca
pacitor and the same values for the inductor and resistor. Oscilloscope CH1 was
again connected across the power supply, while CH2 was connected across the resi
stor. The simplified diagram of the circuit appears below.
Oscilloscope sensitivity was set to measure the voltage response in the first mi
lliseconds after power was turned on. That said, the power supply was only activ
ated for a moment and then turned off afterwards.

Raw data obtained from the oscilloscope were graphed and compared to images take
n of the oscilloscope's output waveform. For the RL circuit, Fig. __ presents th
e power supply's input voltage as a function of time, Fig. __ presents the volta
ge readings across the inductor. It is needless to say that the graph of Fig. __
exactly matches the image in Fig. __.
For the RLC circuit, Fig. __ simiarly presents readings of the power supply's in
put voltage, and Fig. __ that of the voltage across the resistor. The latter fig
ure again matches the one shown in Fig. __.

The graph of the RL circuit in Fig. __ represents the typical charging response
of an inductor. A derivation from Kirchoff's Voltage Law tells us that the homog
enous differential equation:
Bla
should have a solution of the form:
Bla,
where __ is the initial voltage, and __ is the time constant. As the voltage acr
oss the inductor goes down, energy is stored in the magnetic field generated by
the rate of change of the current until the inductor reaches steady state and ac
ts as a short. Tau, which tells us how long the inductor charges (or discharges)
, can be computed theoretically as:

bla.
This value, however, is ideal and does not take into account imperfections in th
e materials used, as well as impedances present throughout the rest of the circu
it, such as the internal resistance of the power supply. It is good practice to
then measure the experimental time constant of the circuit, which here may be es
timated with two approaches. The first involves the understanding of __ on the v
oltage; 1 __ ms of operation corresponds to a 36.78% decrease (or increase) of t
he initial voltage value. One can then take an arbitrary voltage near the initia
l value, and determine the amount of time it takes for it to reduce by 36.78%, a
s shown below.
Bla.
A second way to determine the time constant involves a transformation of the lin
ear graph to a semi-log one; Fig. __ below shows the same values of Fig. __ in s
emi-log.
BLABLAHOWDISDONE
An analysis of the transient response of the RLC circuit is more complex than th
e RL circuit, precisely because it has the combined operations of a capacitor an
d inductor such that it is governed by a second order differential equation. A d
erivation of the solution describing this circuit proceeds again from an applica
tion of Kirchoff's Laws:
BLABLA
such that the general solution is given as:
BLA
Instead of a single time constant, two important parameters determine the operat
ion of the