EMMI Chapter 5

Prepared By: Er.
Gopal Sapkota Manmohan Memorial Polytechnic

(Asst. Lecturer)
Unit 5. Potentiometer
 Operating principle,construction and connection into electric circuit

 Application of d.c. potentiometer.
 Operating principle, construction of inductive potentiometer
 Application of inductive potentiometer
Potentiometer
It is defined as a three-terminal resistor having either sliding or rotating
contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider.The basic construction is
shown in figure below:
It consists of usually a manganin wire of one meter long (between point

‘L’ ‘N’) and ‘ connected in series with variable resistor and a voltage
source(V) which drives constant current in the wire.Wire being of
uniform cross section,the potential drop along the wire is uniform and
increases as the length of wire.
It can be derived that,
For length ‘L’ meter,total resistance of wire=R
Page 1
Prepared By: Er. Gopal Sapkota Manmohan Memorial Polytechnic
(Asst. Lecturer)
R
For length ‘1 meter’,total resistance of wire=
L
This resistance is called per unit resistance and denoted by ‘r’.Hence,
R
r= /m as shown in figure above,E1 and E2 are two cells whose emfs
L
are to be compared.These cells are connected at point ‘M’ with a slider
which is further connected in series with galvanometer for detecting zero
position.
Working
When source ‘E1’ is put into operation in circuit by connecting two way
switch,it starts driving current in section LM until the zero deflection is
seen in the galvanometer.Zero deflection means the potential drop on
wire ‘LM’ is equal to that of source ‘E1’.
Hence,
E1=IrL1……………(1)
Also following the same procedure,we can obtain the zero deflection
length for source ‘E2’ and let it be at distance ‘L2’
That is,
E2=IrL2…………..(2)
Now dividing equation (2) by equation (1),we get
E 2 IrL2

E1 IrL1
E 2 L2
or , 
E1 L1
Using this formula and procedure,knowing one voltage another voltage
can be easily found.
Connection of Potentiometer in a circuit

Potentiometer are in wide use in circuits for a variety of uses, but their
main function remains the same: to increase or decrease the gain of a
signal in a circuit. When the resistance of the potentiometer is decreased,
the gain of the signal increases. When the resistance is increased, the gain
of the signal decreases. This can be used in circuits to control volume
levels such as on speakers. When you increase the volume of speakers,
you're actually decreasing the resistance of the potentiometer. And when
you decrease the volume, you're increasing the resistance of the
potentiometer. Potentiometer are also used with microphones. Having the
same function, they can increase or decrease the gain of a microphone by
adjusting the resistance values of the potentiometer.
In circuit potentiometer can be connected in two ways as shown below:
Page 2
(Asst. Lecturer)
Case-I
Here the potentiometer is hooked up to allow for variable resistance to be
connected in series with the buzzer.
The input source, in this case,DC power source, goes into either one of
the terminal leads of the potentiometer and the component that will be
connected in series with the variable resistance, in this case, the buzzer, is
connected to the wiper (middle lead) of the potentiometer. Note that the
positive side of the buzzer goes into the wiper of the potentiometer. The
other terminal lead is left open with nothing connected to it. When the
knob is turned all the way to one side, the potentiometer has a resistance
of near 0Ω and when the knob of the potentiometer is turned all the way
to the other side, the potentiometer has a resistance of full rated resistance.
In between these two resistances, the potentiometer can hold any
resistance between 0Ω and maximum resistance. This is how a
potentiometer works.
Case-II
Now if a potentiometer is hooked up like this below with the input and
output connected to both terminal leads while leaving the wiper open, it
acts like a fixed resistor:Here the potentiometer is hooked up to provide a
fixed resistance. If we hook up a potentiometer so that the input source to
one lead terminal and the output to the other lead terminal while
disregarding the wiper, it will function just like a fixed resistor. In this
case, the resistance cannot be adjusted, since no part of the circuit is
connected to the wiper terminal, which gives the adjustment for a
potentiometer. Normally, this is not how we want to use a potentiometer
because in a case like this,we could just use a regular fixed resistor.
Page 3
(Asst. Lecturer)
Application of d.c. potentiometer

 Comparison of two different voltages
 Measurement of small resistance
 Measurement of current
 Measurement of power
 Calibration of voltmeter
 Calibration of ammeter
 Calibration of watt-meter
Measurement of Current Using Potentiometer

The basic circuit diagram for measurement of current using potentiometer
is shown in figure below.
Voltage source Vdc supplies the current in the circuit through the
standard resistor ‘S’ connected in series with source via adjustable
resistor.It should be noted that the standard resistor ‘S’ should be within
the range of the ‘POT’.
Page 4
(Asst. Lecturer)
Now using potentiometer across ‘S’ we can measure its voltage drop.
(current in circuit,I)  (resistance of ‘S’)=Voltage measured by POT,V
I  S=V
V
I
or, S
Hence,by this method we can measure current flowing in the circuit using
POT.
Measurement of Power Using Potentiometer

To measure dc power by POT the circuit arrangement is shown in figure
below.For DC source system,power consumed by load is just the
multiplication of current flowing through the load and voltage developed
across it.Hence by measuring current and voltage we can obtain power
consumed by load using POT.
‘S’ is the standard resistor along which current flowing is to be measured

by the ‘POT”.’M’ is the dc motor consuming power and there is a various
resistors containing parallel box for measuring voltage across the motor
and it is recorded as VR
Current through the motor measured by POT,Im= Current through the
V
resistor ‘S’ that is I S  S
S
Voltage across the motor measured by POT=VR
Hence,Power consumed by motor,Pm=ISVR
Replacing value of IS,we get,
V  VS
Pm  S
S
This is the required power that can be measured by ‘POT’
Page 5
(Asst. Lecturer)
AC Potentiometer
Definition: The potentiometer which is used for measuring the phase and
the magnitude of the unknown emf by comparing it with the known
emf such type of potentiometer is known as the AC potentiometer.
The working principle of the AC potentiometer is same as that of the DC
potentiometer, i.e., the unknown voltage is determined by comparing
it with the known voltage. And when both of them are equal the
galvanometer indicates the null point. Hence the value of the unknown
emf is known.But there is one major difference between their
measurements, DC potentiometer only measures the magnitude of the
unknown voltage. Whereas an AC potentiometer measures both the
magnitude and phase of unknown voltage by comparing it with a known
reference.
Applications of AC Potentiometer
The AC potentiometer has numerous applications. The few of them are
explained below in details.
1. Voltmeter Calibration – The AC potentiometer directly measures the
low voltages up to 1.5V. The higher voltage is measured by either using
the volt box ratio or two capacitors in series with the potentiometer.
2. Ammeter Calibration – The measurement of the alternating current
may be measured by the use of non-inductive standard resistor with the
potentiometer.
3. Watt-meter and Energy Meter Testing – The testing circuit of the
Watt-meter and the energy meter is same as that of the DC measurements.
The phase shifting transformer is connected to the potentiometer to vary
the phase of the voltage on the current. Thus, the voltage and current may
vary at different power factor.
4. Measurements of Self Reactant of a Coil – The standard reactance is
placed in series with the coil whose reactance is to be measured.
Potentiometer for measurement of Inductance of the coil

The basic construction of inductive potentiometer is shown in figure
below which consists of a non inductive resistance R1 connected in series
with an inductive coil having inductance L2 and resistance R2 as shown.
Page 6
(Asst. Lecturer)
Working:
We can measure the resistance of the coil ‘AB’ as R2 using Potentiometer
or Ohmeter method and R1 is standard resist0r whose resistance is
already known.
Voltage drop in portion CD,VCD =V1=IR1
V
Current flowing through source,I= 1
R1
Resistance of coil ‘AB’ measured through Ohmeter =R2
Voltage drop in section AB =VAB
A phasor diagram can be drawn as shown in figure below to represent the
voltages of different branches.
Now from figure,we can see that,

Voltage drop in resistive portion of coil is =IR2=VABcos(  )
 IR 
or,   cos 1  2 
 VAB 
Page 7
(Asst. Lecturer)
Now, Voltage drop in inductive portion of coil can be calculated as:

IL2  VAB sin( )
VAB sin( )
Hence, L 2 
I
In this way,inductance of coil can be measured using potentiometer.
Page 8

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Prepared By: Er.

Gopal Sapkota Manmohan Memorial Polytechnic

 Operating principle,construction and connection into electric circuit

It consists of usually a manganin wire of one meter long (between point

Connection of Potentiometer in a circuit

Application of d.c. potentiometer

Measurement of Current Using Potentiometer

Measurement of Power Using Potentiometer

‘S’ is the standard resistor along which current flowing is to be measured

Potentiometer for measurement of Inductance of the coil

Now from figure,we can see that,

Now, Voltage drop in inductive portion of coil can be calculated as:

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