Experiment: Voltage Dividers (230 V, 50/60 Hz)

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Description
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Objecive: Measure the voltage and current for a voltage divider with and without a load

A voltage divider in its simplest form consists of a pair of resistors connected in series, whereby the total voltage across the two of them is divided into two parts. A voltage divider is considered to be loaded when a further resistance is connected in parallel with one of the pair. The current and voltage in each part of the circuit are calculated as in any other series or parallel circuit using Kirchhoff’s laws. When there is no load on the divider, the portions of the voltage can vary between 0 volts and the total voltage, depending on the individual resistors. There is a marked difference, however, when the circuit is loaded with very small loads. Then the voltage across the part of the circuit including the load will be very small regardless of the resistors in the divider.