Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-2-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2013-resit/6/ii/solution
Past exam of the physics 2 paper of the University of Oxford 2013 resit 6 ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
For an initially uncharged capacitor and zero initial current, Kirchhoff's voltage law is , with . LetDifferentiating the circuit equation at gives , while the original equation fixes and . The underdamped response isFor critical damping, , its limit is . For overdamping, put and obtain . These forms cover every positive .
The source does not explicitly specify the capacitor's initial charge. If its initial voltage is , replace in the numerators by ; an open switch alone does not discharge a capacitor. The boxed expression uses the usual uncharged initial condition.
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