Circuits with supercapacitors and bulbs are discussed making use of light bulbs as an indicator of current in the circuit. Thus, one can visually demonstrate that capacitors can store energy. This paper proposes a series of qualitative experiments, where the complexity of the circuits is gradually increased, demonstrating the fundamental concepts of capacitors and RC circuits. It can be demonstrated qualitatively, that the time of loading and unloading of the circuit is related to the time constant RC. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the uncharged capacitor behaves similar to a short circuit. Moreover, at steady state the capacitor charge is constant and it behaves as an open circuit. We also show that it is essential to consider the effect of internal resistance of supercapacitors in quantitative analysis of experimental data. The application of these teaching experiments is also discussed.
supercapacitors; RC circuit; electricity laboratory; physics teaching
