Question

A resistor and the capacitor are used to control the timing in the RC circuit of a heart pacemaker. To design a pacemaker that can double the heart rate when the patient is exercising, does the capacitor need to discharge faster or slower? So, for same capacitor, should the resistance be doubled, halved or stay the same? Explain.

List and explain some of the factors that could account for the percent error in the RC circuit experiment

Answer 1

needs to discharge faster

so the resistance should be decreased to half

since time constant = RC, a small resistance R allows the capacitor to charge faster. This is reasonable since a larger current flows through a smaller resistance. It is also reasonable that the smaller the capacitor C, the less time needed to charge it.

FACTOR: we generally get some capacitance value in the design but preparing the capacitor with such an accuracy is a difficult task, so we may lose micro seconds which is a factor in percent error.(also, due to fringing effects of capacitor)

In case of any doubt, please do comment sir.

please rate sir.