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Potentiometer

A potentiometer, called pot for short, is an electrical component that acts as a variable voltage divider. They usually have three terminals, one of which is connected to a moving center contact. A potentiometer with two terminals is a variable resistor, called a rheostat. Potentiometers come in many forms including rotaries, trimmers, sliders.

Potentiometer is also the term for an old instrument that measured an unknown voltage after being calibrated with a known voltage. These have been replaced by multimeters today.

See Also


Resistance
Rheostat

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Wednesday April 13, 2011 07:54:01 MDT by Dale Pond.