Explainer

A voltage divider uses resistors to produce a fraction of an input voltage. The output comes from the junction between the resistors, and their relative values determine the unloaded ratio. Connecting a load changes the circuit, which is why a divider is useful for many measurements but is not a general power regulator.

The key ideas

  • Resistor ratios set the unloaded voltage ratio.
  • The output is measured at a resistor junction.
  • Load current changes the output voltage.

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Original recording: TikTok, 2023-02-23.

Video transcript

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Automatically transcribed from the original recording. Small transcription errors may remain.

The voltage divider. It was first described in 1840 by James Prescott Jewell, a brilliant scientist who was best known for his work in thermodynamics. He was actually the first guy to recognize the relationship between electrical energy and heat, and his work laid the foundation for many of the electronic devices that we use today. So what exactly is a voltage divider, and how does it work? Well, to put it simply, a voltage divider is a circuit that takes an input voltage and it splits it into two or more outputs, hence the word divider. It does this by using a

series of resistors, which create a voltage drop across each one. Now, by adjusting the values of these resistors, you can control how much voltage goes into each output. Now, you might be thinking, Why would I ever need to use a voltage divider? Well, voltage dividers are actually quite useful in a variety of applications. For example, they can be used to adjust the brightness of an LED, or to regulate the voltage going to a microcontroller. They can also be used in analog to digital converters, where they help to scale down the voltage of an input signal

to a level that can be read by the microcontroller. So how do you make a voltage divider? Well, it's actually quite simple. All you need is a series of resistors connected between the input voltage and ground. The output voltage is taken from the connection between two of these resistors, and by adjusting these values of the resistors, you can control the output voltage. But be warned, using a voltage divider does have its drawbacks. One, it can waste a lot of energy as heat, especially if the input voltage is high. Additionally, the output voltage can be

affected by changes in the load, which can cause the output voltage to fluctuate. All in all, a voltage divider is a simple yet effective tool that can be used in a variety of electronic applications. And by adjusting the values of the resistors, you can control the output voltage and tailor it to your specific needs. So go ahead and give it a try and see See what kind of creative applications you can come up with.