Ok, so I'm a beginner, but I've been doing pretty well with the book up until this point. Not a lot of major confusion. But this circuit - the way it's explained is so weird, I've started wondering if either there's an error in the book, or that I just don't understand any of the things I thought I did. Here's what's bugging me. Pretty near the beginning, in the text between figures 3-74 and 3-75 (I can't tell you the page number, I'm using an ereader so it's different), They talk about the capacitor (C1) and the changes in the resistors and they say:
"When we have a larger capacitor, it takes longer to charge. To keep the flashes reasonably frequent, we'll need a lower-value resistor for R1 to charge the capacitor quickly enough. In addition, reducing the values of R2 and R3 will program the put to allow a longer pulse. I want to discharge the capacitor through a resistor to make the onset of the pulse gradual instead of sudden. Remember, when you have a resistor in series with a capacitor, the capacitor not only charges more slowly, but discharges more slowly. Figure 3-75 shows these features. Compare it with figure 2-103 on page 85. R1 is now 33K instead of 470K. R2 and R3 are reduced to 1K. R4 is also 1K, so that the capacitor takes longer to discharge."
I am so confused. If, when C1 is charging up, the current travels through both R1 and R4 (if it's going through R1 to reach C1, then it must go through R4 to make it to C1 via that route)....then why, if it discharges through R4 (as they seem to say it does) why wouldn't it be discharging through R1 as well? I just don't get what's happening in this circuit with regards to R1, R4, and C1.
(Also: C1 is wired in parallel with R2 and R3, right? Why is there no discussion of how changing them will affect C1? Am I imagining this, or don't resistors in parallel with caps have an affect, too, not just the ones in series? arg.)
I do understand how resistors affect the charge and discharge times of capacitors. What I don't get is the weird, zigzag route the charge seems to take through this circuit.
Any help would be very appreciated! Thanks in advance!
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Current takes the path of least resistance in a circuit. Given that, some current will flow through larger resistors even though they are larger than smaller ones.
When explaining how current works, I like to think of it in terms as if it was water. Imagine water in a large container just like a water tower. The water tower is full of water and there is a pipe coming out of it with w valve. You can see the end of the pipe on the ground as it trails away about 500 feet along the ground (say 500 metres just in case you also happen to be using the metric system).
Now imagine that for that 500 feet (metres) there are discs of wire mesh that can be inserted into the pipe to slow the flow of water. You have control over how many discs are in the pipe.
When the valve is open the water flows. With no discs in the pipe, there is no resistance to the flow of water and the water flows out the end of the pipe very quickly. When you add one disc into the pipe then the water slows the tiniest fraction but still flows quite quickly. Now put another 9 discs in for ten total. The water slows even more. Now you place 250 discs into the pipe (with room for 250 more) and the water has slowed down a lot. With all 500 discs inserted into the pipe the water has slowed down to a trickle because of all the resistance to the flow of water.
Now imagine that there are two pipes from the same water tower that lay on the ground and go for 500 feet (metres). Again, you can insert up to 500 discs into each pipe. With no discs in either pipe, the water flows very quickly through both pipes. With 250 discs in one pipe and no discs in the other pipe the water flows very quickly through one pipe and slowly through the pipe with 250 discs. Imagine that you place 500 discs in one pipe and 250 discs in the other pipe. The water flows more quickly through the pipe with 250 discs that the pipe with 500 discs but the water still flows through both.
This second situation is akin to parallel resistors.
Here is a very good website for tutorials on electronics including resistors in series and parallel as well as capacitors and many other topics involved with electronics: WISC-ONLINE.