Potentiometer

QUICK OVERVIEW

A potentiometer is a manually adjustable variable resistor with 3 terminals. Two of the terminals are connected to the opposite ends of a resistive element, and the third terminal connects to a sliding contact, called a wiper, moving over the resistive element. The potentiometer essentially functions as a variable resistance divider. The resistive element can be seen as two resistors in series (the total potentiometer resistance), where the wiper position determines the resistance ratio of the first resistor to the second resistor. If a reference voltage is applied across the end terminals, the position of the wiper determines the output voltage of the potentiometer.