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Introductory Physics Volume Two

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6.8 Phasor Diagrams 125<br />

Theorem: Impedance: Capacitor<br />

In an AC circuit the amplitude of the voltage on a capacitor is<br />

proportional to the amplitude of the current flowing through the<br />

capacitor.<br />

V C0 = Z C I 0 with Z C ≡ 1<br />

ωC<br />

The impedance of an capacitor is Z C = 1<br />

ωC .<br />

The voltage on a capacitor reaches the peak value one quarter of a cycle<br />

after the current does. For this reason the voltage on a capacitor in an<br />

AC circuit is said to follow the current by a phase of 90 ◦ .<br />

§ 6.8 Phasor Diagrams<br />

This relationship between the leading and following phases is often<br />

represented in a phasor diagraph. As you may recall an oscillation can<br />

be thought of as the horizontal component of a circular motion. So we<br />

can represent the current or voltage in and AC circuit as the horizontal<br />

component of a circular motion.<br />

The current is represented as a vector with constant length I 0 that is<br />

rotating in the counter clockwise direction. The real physical current<br />

is the projection of this vector onto the horizontal (Re) axis.<br />

One thing that is very nice about the phasor representation is that<br />

it allows us to clearly represent in a diagram the phase relationship between<br />

different quantities. Let us take the leading phase of the inductor

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