When a load is connected to a voltage divider, will the total resistance of the circuit increase or decrease?

1 Answer
Ananda Dasgupta
Mar 11, 2018

It decreases

Explanation:

The load is connected in parallel to one part of the voltage divider - reducing its resistance. This part is in series with the other half of the voltage divider - and thus, the total resistance goes down.

If #R_L# is the load resistance which is connected across the part #R_2# of a voltage divider consisting of #R_1# and #R_2#, then the total resistance. once the load is connected is

#R_1 +{R_2R_L}/(R_2+R_L)#

since the second term is smaller than #R_2#, this expression is smaller than #R_1+R_2# which is the total resistance without the load.

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