Basic Knowledge On How A Voltage Divider Works

By Melissa Williams


When you are designing a piece of audio equipment, one of your major concerns is how you get to regulate or control its volume. In this case, a potentiometer which is a variable resistor may be used for specific adjustments. The device used in this situation helps you gain controls for any variable.

This type of circuitry is of great aid when wanting to divide volumes of voltages sent. To simplify, the specific device that you should have is called a voltage divider. This happens to be one of the most fundamental circuits you will be dealing with in the field of electronics.

The Ohms law is used to understand the result of this device. It states that current flowing in a conductor is proportional to the difference between its ends. Meaning, if the current is reduced, then the Volt is also reduced.

There are two essential parts of this divider, one is the circuit and the other is the equation. The circuit pertains to a source of the Volt which goes across two resistors. For the equation, you have to assume three values namely input voltage, resistor one R1, and resistor two R2. The output value could be found by taking the ratio between R1 and R2.

Knowing these essentials, you may realize that you can also create your own portable divider. For this, you have to prepare the leads, resistors, alligator clamps, snap on connectors, a voltmeter and a standard 9V battery. This is the highest possible amount of V a simple electronic can handle. Some would limit it to a 5V only.

Begin by connecting the leads with an alligator clamp. One should contain the red lead resistor with 10 Ohms and the other should contain the black one which has 20 ohms. Then after connecting these leads, use the free end to twist these two together.

Over the twisted leads, ensure a solid twist by clamping the last alligator clamp on it. Then using another connector, place the red wire on the positive terminal of the battery and place the black one in the negative terminal. Hold similar charges together of positives and negatives of your voltmeter lead and clamps and turn your meters on.

The positive voltage terminal of your circuit would be the connector which holds the twisted resistors together in place. On one hand, the negative terminal retains to be the negative source. Using the given equation, the new Volt count of your 9V battery goes down to 3V.

Creating your own portable device is just easy. However, you have to take safety measures for this. When dealing with a 9V battery, however, you may not see a lot of danger for it in terms of electrocution possibilities. But for other electronics, make sure that you have unplugged the wires before working on it.




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