In a voltage divider circuit, if the measured voltage drops are greater than the calculated values, what could be the possible fault?

In a voltage divider circuit, the output voltage is determined by the ratio of the resistances in the divider. When the measured voltage drops are greater than the calculated values, it indicates an error in the circuit, often due to a fault in one of the components.

When one of the resistors in the divider, like R4, is shorted, it effectively bypasses that resistor entirely. This results in a lower total resistance in that part of the circuit, causing the output voltage to drop significantly more than expected, because the calculations would assume that R4 was available and functioning normally. The voltage drop across the resistors is governed by Ohm's law, so eliminating a resistor from the circuit can lead to substantial discrepancies between measured and calculated voltages.

In this scenario, a short circuit in R4 alters how the voltage is divided and results in the measured voltage being unexpectedly higher than theoretically calculated.