why do we perfer a 10 wire potentiometer to 4 wire potentiometer - Physics - Current Electricity

Question

why do we perfer a 10 wire potentiometer to 4 wire potentiometer
?

Pallabi Chakraborty · Accepted Answer

@richihakunamatata has answered this question well keep it
up

A
potentiometer consists of a long uniform wire generally made of
manganin or constanton stretched on a wooden board A metre scale is
fixed on the board parallel to the length of the wire

The
working of potentiometer is based on the fact that the fall of
potential across any portion of the wire is directly proportional
to the length of that portion provided the wire is of uniform area
cross section and a constant current is flowing through
it

Potentiometer
is also used to measure the potential difference It is always
preferred over wheatstone bridge Let us recollect that the
wheatstone bridge has a 1 m long wire now we know that :

V = kl
where V is the potential difference to be measured , k is the
potential gradient of the potentiometer and l is the length of the
wire K is constant When l is greater , V also is greater as a
result the potential difference can be measured more accurately if
the length of the potentiometer wire is more For this reason a long
potentiometer wire of 10m is preferred over a short 4m
wire

why do we perfer a 10 wire potentiometer to 4 wire potentiometer ?