Voltage divider

A potentiometer, pictured here, is a variable-strength resistor.

In electronics, a voltage divider is an electrical circuit which creates an output voltage which is proportional to an input voltage. Voltage dividers are also known as resistor divider and potential divider. It can be made of two resistors or it can be one potentiometer (variable resistor). The output voltage is depends on component values, or on the setting of the potentiometer. When an electrical load gets power from the divider's center point, the voltage may change.

Voltage Divider Media

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  Figure 1: A simple voltage divider

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  Figure 2: Simple resistive voltage divider

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  Figure 3: Resistor/capacitor voltage divider

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  High voltage (HV) resistor divider probe. The HV to be measured (Vin) is applied to the corona ball probe tip and ground is connected to the other end of the divider via the black cable. The divider output (Vout) appears on the connector adjacent to the cable.