2013 Eur. J. Phys. 34, 653.
M A Salgueiro da Silva, T M Seixas
Departamento de Física e Astronomia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal and
Centro de Geofísica da Universidade de Coimbra, Av Dr Dias da Silva, 3000-134 Coimbra, Portugal
Abstract
We describe a method for the exact data linearization of the charging curve of a capacitor. The calculations required are as simple as those involved in the linearization of the discharging curve, allowing analysis of the charging process using the graphical and fitting tools available in introductory physics courses. The proposed method can also be generalized to university-level problems involving biased exponential curves as an input parameter estimation method for nonlinear data fitting procedures.