How long does it take for the capacitor to decay
The voltage across the capacitor for the circuit in Figure 5.10.3 starts at some initial value, (V_{C,0}), decreases exponential with a time constant of (tau=RC), and reaches zero when the capacitor is fully discharged. For the resistor, the voltage is initially (-V_{C,0}) and approaches zero as the capacitor discharges, always following the loop rule so the two voltages add up to …