Electrical and Mechanical Energy
Performed by: Adam Edison
With: Nicholas, Will, and Asma
Abstract
The goal of the lab was to see how energy efficient a capacitor is.
The technique
we used for this lab was to charge the capacitor using a battery and then hooking the
capacitor up to a motor and having the motor pull a wood block down a track.
Our
results were that the capacitor was very energy inefficient with a lower amount of voltage
applied, and still reasonably inefficient with a higher voltage.
This disagreed with our
prediction.
Prediction
To formulate our predictions we first needed to know the equation for the charge
in a capacitor, charge is equal to capacitance multiplied by voltage, where Q is charge, C
is capacitance, and V is voltage.
Q=CV
(1)
With equation (1) we found the equation for the potential energy of the system,
potential energy equals capacitance multiplied by voltage squared divided by two, with U
being the potential energy.
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- Spring '10
- yang
- Law, Energy, Force
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