this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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smart engineering (mander.xyz)
submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 72 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Just for the record... it has to do with practicality.

the notches are spaced similar to a clock, but with the deadzone most potentiometers have, it doesn't go a full 360 around, so they stop at 11. This makes for an intuitive scale with familiar spacing on the notches- even if it is entirely arbitrary.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This is not at all the case.

Most potentiometers have a full rotation or 270°, sometimes up to 300°. By convention the mid-travel is at 12 o'clock. That would make the 0 around 7:30 and the 10 around 4:30.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago

That's not the history of that thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

so they stop at 11

you mean 10, most amps stop at 10.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

At the 11 o'clock position, I think they mean. That's a bit arbitrary tho

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Even the 11 clock position makes no sense, most amps will go from 8 to 4.

Edit, I see what they did. In the picture they used 7 to 5 o'clock as min/max, (which is essentially the same as my 8-4). For some reason they adapted the o'clock numbers to the dial number which is not helpful.

The o'clock numbers are meant to be a static reference point with 12 always at the top most position. You don't bend the clock scale to match the knob min/max.

[–] [email protected] 97 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Based off of my peripheral I really thought that deadzone was Saddam for a second

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 days ago (1 children)

dammit.

missed an opportunity...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

With the power of editing and bribery, we can all pretend you did it right the first go around.