Potentiometer
part · 1841 · Industrial Revolution
A variable resistor with a sliding contact.
Inventor: Johann Christian Poggendorff.
Principles and materials it uses
- Electrical resistance — uses. A voltage divider.
- Copper — is made of. The contacts are copper.
- Nickel — is made of. The resistance wire is a nickel alloy.
Where it is used
- Joystick — is used in. Position is read with potentiometers.
- Mixing console — is part of. Faders.
- Perceptron — is part of. Potentiometers set the weights.
- Electric guitar — is part of. The volume and tone knobs on an electric guitar are potentiometers.
- Joystick — is part of. Two potentiometers, one per axis.
What it is a kind of
- Resistor — is a kind of. A variable resistor.
Things built in a similar way
- Rheostat — works like. Built the same way — a wire and a slider — but a potentiometer has three terminals and divides voltage, as in a volume knob.