What is the difference between a potential divider and a variable resistor?
Potential divider provides a mean to pickup a voltage which can be varied by 1 of the terminals sliding along the side of the potential divider so that the voltage will be the maximum of the supplied voltage at 1 end and 0 at the other end. A variable resister provides a resistance value which may be varied from 0 to maximum by a sliding a shunt which bypasses the turns of wire or the material that makes up the total resister. The more of the resister bypassed the less the resistance.
