33-228

Electronics

Carnegie Mellon University

Spring 2014
Department of Physics

Homework 3

SOLUTIONS

Problems 2.17, 2.21, 2.27, 2.28, 2.29 and 2.D42.

2.17 For a capacitor and an inductor in series, the equivalent impedance is just Zeq =
ZC + ZL . Expanding this , we have that
1
Zeq =
+ jL
jC
1 2 LC
Zeq =
jC
1 2 LC
Zeq = (j)
C
1
.
The magnitude of this impedance is zero when = LC
2.21 For three components in parallel, the impedances add as
1
1
1
1
=
+
+
.
Zeq
R ZC ZL
1
1
1
+ jC +
=
Zeq
R
jL
2
1
1
1 LC
=
+
Zeq
R
jL
jL + R (1 2 LC)
1
=
Zeq
jLR
Inverting, we get that
jLR
R (1 2 LC) + jL
(jLR)(R (1 2 LC) jL)
=
R2 (1 2 LC)2 + 2 L2
2 L2 R
LR2 (1 2 LC)
=
+j 2
R2 (1 2 LC)2 + 2 L2
R (1 2 LC)2 + 2 L2

Zeq =
Zeq
Zeq

As we care looking for the case when Zeq is real, we only need to find the case when
the imaginary part of Z1eq is zero. Thus, we have
1
1
1
=
+ jC +
Zeq
R
jL
1
1
1 2 LC
=
+
Zeq
R
jL
1

The imaginary part is zero when 2 LC = 0, or =

magnitude of the impedance is just Z = R.

1 .
LC

At this frequency, the

2.27 Assuming a linear fall-off of attenuation versus frequency on a log-log plot, we want
to show that a 20 dB change over a factor of 10 in frequency corresponds to a 6 dB
change over a factor of 2 in frequency. This corrsponds to
20 dB
x dB
=
log10 (10)
log10 (2)
20 dB
x dB
=
1
(0.301)
x = 6 dB
2.28 If we have an attenuation of 60 dB per decade, then the power is given as:
60 dB
20 dB
p = 3
p =

which means that we have

| G | f 3

1
2.29 If we have a gain that goes as G() = A/ , the constant A must have units of s 2 .
We also see that
1

| G | f2
so p = 21 and the attenuation per deacde is then
A
1
=
2
20 dB
A = 10 dB/decade

2.D42 The basic idea would be to gave the capacitors rapidly discharge through the hotdogs,
thus cooking them. The energy stored in a fully charged capacitor would be
1
CV 2
2
1
E =
(0.5 F )(35 V )2
2
E = 306 J
E =

In order to cook the hot dog, we need to raise its temperature to about 65 C from a
refrigerated temperature of about 10 C, or T = 55 C. The energy needed to do this
2

is
E = m c T
E = (50 g) (4.2J/(gC)) (55 C)
E = 11.5 kJ .
Thus, we need the energy stored in 38 capacitors to be able to cook the hot dog. To
do this, we could put the 38 capacitors in parallel, to yield a total capacitance of 17 F .
We now need to discharge this (quickly) through the hotdog. The discharge time is
given by tha characteristic time of the circuit, or RC = RC. This time is 1700 s or
about half and hour. This would seem far too long to cook the hot dog.
In order to cook the hot dog, we need the charateristic time to be on the order of
50s, which for a fixed resistance of 100 , yields a capacitance of about 0.5 F. To store
11.5 kJ in this capacitor, we would need the voltage across the capacitor to be
q

2 E/C

V
V

=
46000 V
= 214 V .

To hold 214 V with 35 V capacitors, we need to place about seven of them in series.
Unfortunately, the equivalent capacitance of these in series is 17 of the individual capacitances. We can recover this by building the circuit shown in Figure 1. Thus, in
order to be able to do this, your friends uncle will need 49 of the capacitors and a DC
voltage source that can provide 200 V as well as switching capability for 200 V DC.

0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F

0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F

0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F

0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F

0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F

0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F

0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F 0.5F

Figure 1: The capacitor array for problem D2.31