How does negative feedback in op-amps enhance stability in electronic circuits?

Negative feedback takes a small portion of the output and feeds it back to the input in the opposite direction, which reduces the overall gain but makes the circuit’s behavior predictable. By doing this, the op‑amp’s open‑loop gain, which can vary wildly with temperature or frequency, is effectively limited to a known, lower value that is easier to control. Because the gain is now set by external resistors rather than the amplifier’s internal characteristics, the circuit becomes less sensitive to component variations and noise, keeping the output stable. For example, an inverting amplifier that uses a 10 kΩ feedback resistor and a 1 kΩ input resistor will have a stable, fixed gain of –10, regardless of the op‑amp’s own variations. Thus, negative feedback turns an unstable, high‑gain device into a reliable, stable building block.