Firstly, forget the 100 Ω resistor for now. It's not required for the working of the button, it's just there as a protection in case you would make a programming error.
- If the button is pressed P2 will be directly connected to +5 V, so that will be seen as a high level, being "1".
- If the button is released the +5 V doesn't count anymore, there's just the 10 kΩ between the port and ground.
A microcontroller's I/O pin is high impedance when used as input, meaning there flows only a small leakage current, usually much less than the 1 µA, which will be the maximum according to the datasheet. OK, lets' say it's 1 µA. Then according to Ohm's Law this will cause a voltage drop of 1 µA \$\times\$ 10 kΩ = 10 mV across the resistor. So the input will be at 0.01 V. That's a low level, or a "0". A typical 5 V microcontroller will see any level lower than 1.5 V as low.
Now the 100 Ω resistor. If you would accidentally made the pin output and set it low then pressing the button will cause a short-circuit: the microcontroller sets 0 V on the pin, and the switch +5 V on the same pin. The microcontroller doesn't like that, and the IC may be damaged. In those cases the 100 Ω resistor should limit the current to 50 mA. (Which still is a bit too much, a 1 kΩ resistor would be better.)
Since there won't flow current into an input pin (apart from the low leakage) there will hardly be any voltage drop across the resistor.
The 10 kΩ is a typical value for a pull-up or pull-down. A lower value will give you even a lower voltage drop, but 10 mV or 1 mV doesn't make much difference. But there's something else: if the button is pressed there's 5 V across the resistor, so there will flow a current of 5 V/ 10 kΩ = 500 µA. That's low enough not to cause any problems, and you won't be keeping the button pressed for a long time anyway. But you may replace the button with a switch, which may be closed for a long time. Then if you would have chosen a 1 kΩ pull-down you would have 5 mA through the resistor as long as the switch is closed, and that's a bit of a waste. 10 kΩ is a good value.
Note that you can turn this upside down to get a pull-up resistor, and switch to ground when the button is pressed.
![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9J6sx.png)
This will invert your logic: pressing the button will give you a "0" instead of a "1", but the working is the same: pressing the button will make the input 0 V, if you release the button the resistor will connect the input to the +5 V level (with a negligible voltage drop).
This is the way it's usually done, and microcontroller manufacturers take this into account: most microcontrollers have internal pull-up resistors, which you can activate or deactivate in software. If you use the internal pull-up you only need to connect the button to ground, that's all. (Some microcontrollers also have configurable pull-downs, but these are much less common.)
As per the schematic provided, if all 3 inputs were sharing a resistor, then any of the lines being pulled high via the switch would raise all 3 lines to high, countering the purpose of the design - the MCU would not know which switch position is selected.
A common way of reducing part count, not resistor count, for such designs is to use a common bus resistor network or array:
(from here)
These are available as through-hole SIP/DIP as well as SMD, in a variety of resistor counts, depending on your needs. The bus pin is connected to ground, and the other pins are connected to the respective MCU inputs as in your schematic.
(from here)
(from here)
Best Answer
Strong means low resistance. Weak means high resistance. Of course low and high are relative terms, and so are strong and weak. The reference for this relationship must be inferred from context.
A strong or low resistance pull-up/down resistor is good because the time constant formed the load capacitance (often, the input gate capacitance, and the PCB trace capacitance) is small, so rise/fall times will be short.
A strong pull-up/down resistor is good because noise currents from unintended coupling and EMI will result in smaller noise voltages. (Think about Ohm's law)
A weak or high resistance pull-up/down resistor is good because it will not require much current from the driving circuitry to work against the resistor. Batteries will thus last longer, parts can be smaller and don't get as hot.
Of course, you usually want all of these things, but a resistor can't be both. A discussion about strong vs. weak is usually clarifying which of these concerns (or perhaps others) are more important for a particular application.