Applying Thévenin’s Theorem and Kirchhoff’s Junction Rule to a Common RC Circuit

Many physics textbooks describe the way in which a capacitor in an RC circuit charges and discharges over time. A circuit that consists of a capacitor that is connected to a voltage divider as shown in Fig. 1 is commonly addressed, but the textbooks limit the discussion to the time immediately after the switch is closed and a long time after the switch is closed, without discussing the behavior of the circuit in the intermediate times. Our experiment explores this intermediate stage, using the RC circuit in Fig. 1. Given the ubiquity of this problem in introductory textbooks, and the ease with which it may be further explored, a more in-depth analysis is warranted.