Experiment: Charging and Discharging a Coil

Product Overview

Objective: Investigation of how the current through a coil changes over time when the DC supply is turned on and off The behaviour of a coil in a DC circuit changes as soon as the DC supply is turned on or off. The change in current is delayed by self induction of the coil until it reaches its final value when turning on or zero when turning off. A plot of the coil current against time can be shown to be an exponential curve i.e. the current through the coil drops by half in the space of a fixed period T1/2 called the half life. The same period elapses when the current drops from a half to a quarter and from a quarter to an eighth. The half life period is proportional to the inductance and the resistance of the circuit.

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