To be precise, time constant is not associated with capacitors alone. You need both resistance and capacitance to define a time constant (by the way, we also have a time constant with resistance and inductance). Lets look at a simple RC circuit as... read more
Time constant (t=RC) of a Capacitor refers to rate of charge or discharge .When a capacitor is charged, its voltage raises exponentially (not linearly). If a capacitor (C) is charged thru resistor (R) ,it will reach the maximum voltage in 5 time constants. read more
Time constant definition is - the time required for a current turned into a circuit under a steady electromotive force to reach to (e-1)/e or 0.632 of its final strength (where e is the base of natural logarithms); specifically : the ratio of the inductance of a circuit in henries to its resistance in ohms. read more