555-Timer Hello World

I want to build a device that can measure the capacitance of a bunch of capacitors I have of unknown value.  I realised I had a 555 Timer in my box of random IC's and, looking at how one is fitted together it seems that (in Monostable mode) the output pulse is proportional to the resistor and capacitor (C1 and R1 in the diagram below)

555 Timer (Generated with Livewire)

The length of time of the output pulse is given by the following equation:

R = R1 in Ohms
C = C1 in Farads

Given that in our circuit R1 = 15.4 * 10^3 and C1 = 10 * 10^-6 we can calculate that the timespan of the pulse should be about 0.17 seconds. 

Now that I have a flashing LED, record this pulse width and test the circuit.


NB:  If you're thinking "How does he know the value of R1?", will, resistance is easy to measure, capacitance is not!

I'll update the blog when I've done this!