Series AC RLC circuit (Phasors and evolution of time series)

This physlet shows the voltage graphs for the series RLC AC circuit, and the phasor diagrams of the voltage vectors. You can specify the driving voltage (E), the frequency (f), the resistance (R), the capacitance (C) and the inductance (L). The graph on the left shows the rotating phasors of the voltages. The graph on the right plots the amplitudes of the individual vectors (VR, VC, VL), and the combined vector (Emax). [See note at bottom of the page concerning the SINE/COSINE issue.]

Set the initial parameters of the circuit :
Emax =  volts        f =  cycles/sec
R =  ohms        L =    Henries       C =    microFarads       

Note : For the purposes of this animation, we are looking at the "vertical component" of the phaser vectors, so the equations for the voltages involve SINE functions - traditionally, you would use the "horiztonal component" and thus COSINE functions ... six of one, half dozen of the other ... in other words, as long as you are consistant, it doesn't matter! (In either case, the voltage values at a particular time still add up to the main voltage!).