Hello everyone,

I seem to be having a brain-fart today. So, I have a resistor divider circuit, R1, R2, where R1 is the top resistor, connected to signal in and R2 is the bottom resistor, connected to ground . The output will go to a ADC. The frequency of the waveform going into the ADC (signal out) needs to be 1/5th that of the sampling frequency (specified in the datasheet). I am creating a low pass filter on signal out by connecting a capacitor (C1) to ground.

My question is this, for the RC time constant, will it be R1 * C1 or R2*C2?

 

My question is this, for the RC time constant, will it be R1 * C1 or R2*C2?

Neither. It will be C1 times the equivalent parallel value of R1 and R2: R1*R2/(R1+R2).

 

To elaborate on OBW0549's comment, note that each resistor goes to a low impedance, one to ground and one to the signal source. Thus looking back at the junction of the two resistors, the impedance would appear as the two resistors in parallel.

 

Oh, ok, thanks guys!