A pair of capacitors and
is connected as shown, with a
resistance
in between them. Initially, the first capacitor carries
a total charge
and the second one is uncharged,
.
At
the switch is closed. Find:
a) The equilibrium () charges on the two capacitors,
and
.
b) Using Kirchoff's laws for this arrangement, find the time constant
for the equilibration process. Note that you do NOT have to solve the
DE, just formulate it with and some arrangement of
,
,
and
on the other side.
c) For extra credit, either solve the DE (it is integrable, although a
bit messy) or GUESS what its solution is, based on your answers to a)
and b). To do the latter, try visualizing what and
will formally look like - it is just a matter of setting the various
constants so that the asymptotic (final) and initial conditions are
correctly represented and the approach to those conditions has the right
time dependence.