RC Circuit Quiz
June 1963 Popular Electronics

June 1963 Popular Electronics [Table of Contents] People old and young enjoy waxing nostalgic about and learning some of the history of early electronics. Popular Electronics was published from October 1954 through April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged. See all articles from Popular Electronics.

Having worked around resistors and capacitors for more than four decades comes in handy when presented with 'simple' quizzes like this one that appeared in a 1963 Popular Electronics dealing with RC circuits. Still, there is always some trepidation involved when being subject, even voluntarily, to a test of any sort, regardless of whether you are fairly confident that it will be a lead pipe cinch, a cake walk, child's play, so to speak. Even if nobody else will bear witness to your effort, you would feel like a real moron if you missed even one of those simple questions that anyone with your level of experience should get right without even having to think about it. Such is the irrational fear I have when taking these quizzes prior to posting them on RF Cafe. I have always been honest about the results, and there have been instances where I missed a couple that I shouldn't have by all rights (or wrongs). This time, however, Lady Luck was with me and I aced it. If you're not accustomed to seeing those strange round schematic symbols with a mix of solid and dashed horizontal lines within, those are vacuum tubes. Just mentally substitute your favorite solid state amplifier like a bipolar of a field effect transitor.

 

See all articles from Popular Electronics.

RC Circuit Quiz

By Robert P. Balin

Circuits that are made up of resistors and capacitors only perform a wide variety of functions in electronic equipment. Try to match the RC circuit functions listed (1-10) with the circuits (A-J) to which they apply.

Answers are at the bottom of the page.

 

 

1  Decoupling network ____ 2  Treble-cut tone control ____ 3  Differentiator ____ 4  Frequency control ____ 5  Phase-shifting network ____

6  Timing control ____   7  Equalizer ____   8  Integrator ____   9  Band suppression filter ____ 10  RC coupling circuit ____

 

 

 

Here are other Popular Electronics quizzes:

- Lamp Brightness Quiz, January 1969 - Graph Interpretation Quiz, April 1967 - Electronic Quizoo, October 1962 - Electronic Photo Album Quiz, Mar 1963 - Electronic Analogy Quiz, Nov 1961 - Electronic Alphabet Quiz, May 1963 - RC Circuit Quiz, Jun 1963 - Diode Quiz, Jul 1961 - Kool-Keeping Kwiz, Jun 1970 - Electronic Curves Quiz, Feb 1963 - Electronic Numbers Quiz, Dec 1962 - Energy Conversion Quiz, Apr 1963 - Coil Function Quiz, Jun 1962 - Electronics Analogy Quiz, Aug 1960 - Audio Quiz, April 1955 - Electronic Unit Quiz, May 1962 - Capacitor Circuit Quiz, Jun 1968 - Magnetic Phenomena Quiz, Feb 1962 - Electronics Geography Quiz, Apr 1970 - Electronic Menu Quiz,  Aug 1963 - Electronic Noise Quiz, Aug 1962 - Electronic Current Quiz, Oct 1963 - Electronic Inventors Quiz, Nov 1963 - Resistor Function Quiz, Jan 1962 - Electronic Measurement Quiz, Jan 1963 - Vacuum Tube Quiz, Feb 1961

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RC Circuit Quiz Answers

1 - D - A Decoupling Network acts as a low-pass filter so that signal frequencies are bypassed to ground
          and not coupled to other stages via the power supply.

2 - A - A Treble-cut Tone Control in the plate circuit of an audio amplifier acts as a low-pass filter. Decreasing
           the amount of resistance bypasses an increasing amount of the highs to ground.

3 - G - A Differentiator is a high-pass filter which removes low-frequency components of a square wave.
           Capacitor charges very quickly and permits only short pulses of current through resistor.

4 - J - The Frequency Control circuit for this blocking oscillator biases the transistor to cutoff until the capacitor
          has discharged through the resistor. The capacitor then charges up again through the transistor when
          it begins to conduct.

5 - F - The Phase-Shifting Network to provide in-phase (positive) feedback for this oscillator consists of three
           cascaded RC circuits, The voltage across each resistor leads the signal applied to each RC section
           by 60 degrees.

6 - E - The Timing Control for this time delay circuit is an RC circuit which controls the transistor emitter-base
           biasing. The relay remains energized until the capacitor is charged and opposes the forward bias
           provided by the battery.

7 - I - An Equalizer for a crystal phonograph cartridge is a low-pass filter designed to compensate for the
          attenuation of low frequencies in disc recordings.

8 - B - An Integrator is a low-pass filter which removes high frequencies from a square wave, In this
           long-time-constant circuit, the capacitor charges and discharges slowly through the resistor.

9 - C - A Band Suppression Filter such as this Wien bridge contains both series and parallel RC circuits which
           balance with the resistive arms to null the output signal at a particular frequency.

10 - H - An RC Coupling Circuit is really a form of high-pass filter; capacitor must be large enough in proportion
             to resistor to pass the lowest signal frequency without excessive attenuation.

 

 

 

 

Posted April 22, 2014