FemEng Lab Episode 5: The Voltage Divider

Hello everyone,

I am sad to announce that this is our last video...

Thank you so much to everybody who has been following the FemEng Lab series! Our aim with these videos was to give you the tools to successfully and confidently complete your first lab. Don’t hesitate to refer back to the videos as you come across any of the equipment we have used in future.

The last video is of the highest importance as it is about a very common but deeply misunderstood circuit: the classic voltage divider. Natalia is going to talk through the theory and then demonstrate it with her breadboard and the multimeter!

Thanks to the voltage divider with a range of resistances or a potentiometer, even if you had a fixed input voltage, you could get any output voltage as long as it is a fraction of the input. However, be aware that you should not use a voltage divider to drive a load because the current would always have to run through R1 before making it inefficient in terms of power.

Any questions? Leave a comment!

Make sure to follow our social media so as not to make sure to not miss out on our other projects and maybe a FemEng lab season 2 (?) !

Thanks again to Grass Roots for their invaluable help!

Jeanne Michalon (she/her)

4th Year Mechanical Design Engineering

Series Contents:

FemEng Lab Introduction

FemEng Lab Episode 1 - The Breadboard

FemEng Lab Episode 2 - The Multimeter

FemEng Lab Episode 3 - The Oscilloscope and Function generator

FemEng Lab Episode 4 - The Oscilloscope Probe

FemEng Lab Episode 5 - The Voltage Divider Circuit