Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro
Department of Telecommunication Engineering
Applied Physics (1st Semester, 1st Year)
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LAB HANDOUT # 08
VOLTAGE DIVIDER RULE
OBJECTIVE: To Verify Voltage Divider Rule Experimentally for combine Series & Parallel Circuit
EQUIPMENT & CIRCUIT COMPONENTS REQUIRED:
Multi-SIM Software
Breadboard
Digital Multi-Meter
DC Power Supply
Resistors with different ratings
Connecting wires
THEORY:
In any given series circuit, the current that flows through each circuit element (resistors and voltage
source) is the same. If fixed resistors (not variable resistors) are used, then the voltage drops will be fixed
and will be directly proportional to the ratio of the resistor sizes. If a reference point, called “common” or
“ground” is established, it is then possible to measure the voltage at all other points in the circuit, with
respect to this “common” point. If the “common” point is then relocated to another point in the circuit, the
voltage (measured with respect to the common point) at each other point will be different. The ratio of
resistance values in a series circuit determines the ratio of voltage drops.
Therefore, given the source voltage and the value of each resistor, the voltage drops can be found by
expressing ratios of voltage to resistance:
Figure 1: Series Circuit
The Voltage Divider Rule (VDR) states that the voltage across an element or across a series combination
of elements in a series circuit is equal to the resistance of the element or series combination of elements
divided by the total resistance of the series circuit and multiplied by the total impressed voltage:
