Resistor Voltage Divider

Application

This circuit shows a resistor used as the lower leg of a simple voltage divider. A 5 V source feeds a 1K upper resistor, then the featured 1K resistor returns the divider node to ground.

Schematic Organization

The input source is on the left, the fixed upper resistor is in the top path, and the featured resistor is the horizontal lower leg on the right. The bottom conductor is the shared return, with one ground reference. Voltage probes measure the input rail and the divider node.

Expected Behavior

With equal 1K resistor values, the divider node should be close to half the input voltage. For the 5 V source shown here, Vdiv should be about 2.5 V and the current through both resistors should be about 2.5 mA.

Suggested Experiments

Change the featured resistor value from 1K to 2K or 500 and rerun the operating point. Compare the measured Vdiv value with the divider equation Vdiv = Vin * RLOAD / (RTOP + RLOAD).