Proportional Control

Cruise control on a hill

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Proportional control: effort = gain × error.
• It leaves a steady-state error ≈ needed effort ÷ gain.
• Higher gain, smaller error, but never zero.

Steps

1. The bigger the error, the harder the push
2. Up the hill
3. Within 2 km/h
4. A proportional heater
5. Gain versus error
6. A heavier load