Beginner questions about circuits and resistors

Beginner question about resistor.
I was following a few tutorials including one written for netduino, ( Wilderness Labs Developer Portal).
I believe I used a few other meadow tutorials but can’t recall them all. However, I believe I’ve replicated the correct behavior in my repo:
NelsonLamprecht/meadow_photoresistor (github.com)
However, I’m very new with circuits and actually understanding what I’m doing although I believe I am decent at c#.
I have a few questions:

  • Why is the analog in port connected to both the photoresistor and the traditional resistor?
  • Why is the other end of the resistor connected to the ground?
  • Is there a better, more standard way to wire to achieve the same result?

Try googling something like → why does a voltage divider need two resistors.
The Photoresistor is a variable resistor with low resistance under bright light and high resistance in the dark.

ok, questions to your answers in order:

  1. It’s connected in between them, where the voltage is divided. See Kirchoff’s voltage law: Wilderness Labs Developer Portal
  2. I think you’ve got it wired backwards, though it may not matter. see the diagram in “Reading Resistive Sensors” here: Wilderness Labs Developer Portal. The resistive sensor will allow some voltage to drain off to ground. depending on how much gets dumped off, you know what its resistance is. think of a river with a diversion. the diversion is the resistive sensor. by measuring the amount of water flow in the river, you know how much is being diverted.
  3. see #2.