Teaching general concepts about sensors and transfer functions with a voltage divider

This work proposes the use of a simple voltage divider circuit composed by one potentiometer and one resistor to simulate the behavior of the electrical output signal of linear and nonlinear sensors. It is a low cost way to implement practical experiments in classroom and it also enables the analysis of interesting topics of electricity. This work induces naturally to a class guide where students can build and characterize a voltage divider to explore several concepts about sensors output signal. As the result of this teaching activity it is expected that students understand fundamentals of voltage divider, potentiometer operation, fundamental sensor characteristics, transfer function, and, besides, associate directly concepts of physics and mathematics with a practical approach.