small in fig1 b the contact location 110 b moves farther away from the contact portion 109 but still stays generally in a central region of the resistive surface 105 away from the outer edge of the resistive surface 105 because the contact location 110 b is spaced farther from the contact portion 109 there is a larger amount of resistive resilient material and thus a larger amount of parallel paths 112 b for the current to flow than in fig1 a the increase in the number of parallel paths causes a decrease in the parallel path resistance component the greater distance between the contact portion 109 and the contact location 110 b produces an increase in the straight resistance component but it is still a small component compared to the parallel path component due to the presence of the large amount of parallel paths which more than compensates for the increase in straight resistance therefore the effective resistance decreases as the contact location 110 b moves farther away from the fixed center contact portion 109 eventually the additional generation of parallel paths decreases as the distance increases between the contact portion 109 and the contact location increases in the embodiment shown in fig1 c this occurs when the contact location 110 c approaches the edge of the resistive surface 105 where the contact location 110 c is no longer surrounded by as much resistive resilient material as in fig1 a and 13b the resistive resilient material available for the parallel paths 112 c is limited by geometric factors meanwhile the straight resistance component continues to increase as a result of.