Voltage Dividers: The Most Classic of Circuits

[@trelligan42]

As an electronic technician who worked with many (often younger) people for years, I can tell you that this is an absolutely essential concept to understand. Most of the people who make frequent mistakes reading schematics don't understand voltage dividers. Very good introduction, I don't know who to teach this without *_lots_* of examples - which gets tedious. But it's nice to see their faces when the lightbulb turns on and they get it.

[@paul-c7541]

Totally agree, it was drummed into us as apprentices.

[@learnelectronics]

Yep, you are going to find divider circuits everywhere

[@Alext-wx7hr]

I learned this in my first electronics course which was DC Circuits but got so lost in the math and wasnt shown enough examples, this video clarifies alot of things!

[@michaelpadovani9566]

Such a fundamental circuit that is used all the time. Paul did it right here but to learn from my mistake make sure you either power off and allow all caps to discharge or take out component before measuring resistance.

[@electroKrunch]

This has been very informative! I was taking electronics classes 30 some years ago, I'm now reinvigorated!!!

[@paul-c7541]

Welcome back

[@fast_and_curious9144]

Congratulations For Teaching these 30 years ago!!

[@paul-c7541]

I like these reminders keeps us on our toes as we get older with memory fade :)

[@opalprestonshirley1700]

This takes me back to DC circuits. Thanks, Paul.

[@jj74qformerlyjailbreak3]

Thank you Paul.

[@bertbrecht7540]

My mental block when I first studied this circuit was intuitively knowing if the voltage was higher across the larger or smaller resistor.

[@Enigma758]

It may help to think of the limiting case. The lowest possible resistance is a wire and there is no voltage drop across a short circuit.

[@andrewwilson6240]

Or for that matter, an open circuit - infinite resistance - gets _all_ of the voltage And digital electronics starts from these extremes.

[@Enigma758]

@@andrewwilson6240 Yes, that is the other limiting case :D

[@adamv242]

I learned something here today. Thank you.

[@learnelectronics]

Glad to hear it!

[@lars-magnusskog3983]

You said "It's going to be really small" when you had R2 as 100k and R1 as 1k, which is odd to me. It should be closer to 10V, since 100/101 is roughly smaller than one.

[@MrFrazierNation]

I'm with you on this

[@peskycat]

Nice demo. Thanks!

[@waynegram8907]

Are you going to make a video lesson about Voltage dividers used as a Voltage Source, Current Source and the Power Efficiency and Power Transfer?

[@CuriousFocker]

Hi Paul, you should also mention that you can use exactly this circuit to obtain both positive and negative voltage, eg. +5v and -5v from a 10v input.

[@Released_Sausage]

How do you do that?

[@electronic7979]

👍

[@shaad2841]

What if we have more than 2 resistors in series. Still we take R2 reference in voltage divider for formula?

[@JerryPemberton]

I assume that you would use a voltage divider to step down the voltage to a certain part of your circuit. Like, powering on an LED light for whatever reason. Can you still send that original 10 volts to other parts of your circuit? If so, how?

[@learnelectronics]

Sure, you just come off the VCC instead of the junction of the two resistors.

[@rvnreddy3929]

just i'm going to start doing electronics

[@TheSwartz]

I don't understand which one is R1 and which one is R2? (or R3, ...)

[@learnelectronics]

In order from vcc towards ground. So 1st resistor connected to +Vdc is R1.

[@bblod4896]

Cool.

[@frankieknuckles9610]

Why do they call it a breadboard?

[@creativegallery-thehomeofc5818]

Its original name is bread board... So we all called it bread board

[@enginering_variant6487]

Read this electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/48516/why-are-they-called-breadboards#48533

[@seditiousmonkeyart]

Back in the early days of electronics circuits would be prototyped on strips of wood. The nickname 'breadboard' was born because that's what they looked like, and has stuck.

[@MrVosh-nj2lc]

@@seditiousmonkeyart True. Back in the days, young experimenters would often use their mother's bread board (yes, in those days many women actually made their own bread) to prototype circuits. They would hammer nails into the board for the wire tie points. Similar to wire wrap circuit construction.

[@poochie1480]

Guys pls remember the thumbs button thx

[@vEYERULE]

I always struggle looking for the difference between R1 and R2 any type?🤦🏾‍♂️

[@user-uk7uu9us1w]

In the tip about caps when you say rc is it supposed to be ac

[@electroniquepassion]

👉👍❤️👍👈

[@creativegallery-thehomeofc5818]

😃

[@pleasecho2]

Where did you get those mini clips? I keep getting crappy chinese junk

[@learnelectronics]

Probemaster probes

[@pleasecho2]

@@learnelectronics thx

[@markgreco1962]

First

[@melplishka5978]

👍