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Noun: time constant  tIm kón-stunt
  1. (electronics) the time required for the current or voltage in a circuit to rise or fall exponentially through approximately 63 per cent of its amplitude
    "The engineer calculated the time constant to design the filter"
     
  2. The ratio of the inductance of a circuit in henries to its resistance in ohms
    "The time constant of the RC circuit was 0.5 seconds"

Derived forms: time constants

Type of: interval, ratio, time interval

Encyclopedia: Time constant