Q: Is a potentiometer essentially a voltage divider used for measuring electric potential? ¶
A: Yes, the component is an implementation of the same principle, hence its name.
Q: Are potentiometers used to scale intermediate results by desired constant factors? ¶
A: Yes, or to set initial conditions for a calculation.
Q: Are potentiometers widely used throughout electronics wherever adjustments must be made during manufacturing or servicing? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are potentiometers also operated by rotating a shaft? ¶
A: Yes, but by several turns rather than less than a full turn.
Q: Is a potentiometer often used? ¶
A: Yes, and with one terminal unconnected or connected to the wiper.
Q: Are potentiometers used when the division ratio of the potentiometer must be proportional to the angle of shaft rotation? ¶
A: Yes, for example, controls used for adjusting the centering of the display on an analog cathode-ray oscilloscope.
Q: Are potentiometers rarely used to directly control significant amounts of power? ¶
A: Yes, Instead they are used to adjust the level of analog signals , and as control inputs for electronic circuits.
Q: Is a potentiometer that the slider position gives a visual indication of its setting? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is a potentiometer not one half of the total value of the potentiometer? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are potentiometers also very widely used as a part of displacement transducers because of the simplicity of construction and because they can give a large output signal? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are potentiometers often made of graphite? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Was a potentiometer often used to adjust "vertical hold"? ¶
A: Yes, and which affected the synchronization between the receiver's internal sweep circuit and the received picture signal, along with other things such as audio-video carrier offset, tuning frequency and so on.
Q: Are potentiometers widely used as user controls? ¶
A: Yes, and may control a very wide variety of equipment functions.
Q: Were potentiometers formerly used to control picture brightness? ¶
A: Yes, and contrast, and color response.
Q: Is a potentiometer a multi-turn potentiometer operated by an attached reel of wire turning against a spring? ¶
A: Yes, and enabling it to convert linear position to a variable resistance.
Q: Are potentiometers problematic? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are potentiometers commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on audio equipment? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are potentiometers constructed with a resistive element formed into an arc of a circle usually a little less than a full turn and a wiper sliding on this element when rotated? ¶
A: Yes, and making electrical contact.
Q: Are potentiometers often used in connection with audio amplifiers? ¶
A: Yes, as human perception of audio volume is logarithmic.
Q: Are potentiometers typically 1 million to 20 million cycles depending on the materials used during manufacturing and the actuation method? ¶
A: Yes, contact and contactless methods are available. Many different material variations are available such as PET, FR4, and Kapton.
Q: Are potentiometers not accurately logarithmic? ¶
A: Yes, but use two regions of different resistance to approximate a logarithmic law.
Q: Is a potentiometer constructed with a resistive element that either "tapers" in from one end to the other? ¶
A: Yes, or is made from a material whose resistivity varies from one end to the other.
Q: Are potentiometers rarely used to directly control significant power? ¶
A: Yes, since the power dissipated in the potentiometer would be comparable to the power in the controlled load.
Q: Are potentiometers significantly more expensive? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are potentiometers sufficient? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is a potentiometer a potentiometer that has a bias built into the resistive element? ¶
A: Yes.