Voltage divider

In <a href="/facts/Electronics/E4JhgISq">electronics</a>, a voltage divider (also known as a potential divider) is a <a href="/facts/Passivity_(engineering)/7oDeoqd3">passive</a> <a href="/facts/Linear_circuit/eDxQYWo2">linear circuit</a> that produces an output <a href="/facts/Voltage/EN2po6N2">voltage</a> (Vout) that is a fraction of its input voltage (Vin). Voltage division is the result of distributing the input voltage among the components of the divider. A simple example of a voltage divider is two <a href="/facts/Resistor/JrsGReM6">resistors</a> connected in <a href="/facts/Series_and_parallel_circuits/007qC7j8">series</a>, with the input voltage applied across the resistor pair and the output voltage emerging from the connection between them.
Resistor voltage dividers are commonly used to create reference voltages, or to reduce the magnitude of a voltage so it can be measured, and may also be used as signal <a href="/facts/Attenuator_(electronics)/IN6mISdl">attenuators</a> at low frequencies. For direct current and relatively low frequencies, a voltage divider may be sufficiently accurate if made only of resistors; where frequency response over a wide range is required (such as in an <a href="/facts/Oscilloscope/HMdD8XVk">oscilloscope</a> probe), a voltage divider may have capacitive elements added to compensate load capacitance. In <a href="/facts/Electric_power_transmission/I9w3lRmM">electric power transmission</a>, a capacitive voltage divider is used for measurement of high voltage.

Voltage divider open-in-new

Voltage divider