Letting Go

Exponential discharge

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• A discharging capacitor follows $V = V_0 e^{-t/RC}$.
• It halves every $\tau \ln 2 \approx 0.69\,\tau$.
• DRAM must refresh its leaky capacitors constantly.

Steps

1. Exponential decay
2. Half-life
3. Measure the time constant
4. Energy left
5. The first rush
6. Leaky memory