Carbon Resistors

By Gaurav Thakur, XII D, Roll no – 10

Gaurav Thakur
 RAJHANS VIDYALAYA

ANDHERI (W), MUMBAI

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Gaurav Thakur of std XII D,

Roll no- ____________ has successfully
completed the physics project titled “Carbon
Resistors” in partial fulfilment of curriculum of
central board of secondary education leading to
the award of all India senior school certificate
examination for the academic year 2019-2020.

Internal Examiner External Examiner

Teacher in Charge Principal

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 Acknowledgement
I would like to express my deep gratitude to our
Principal Mrs. Deepshikha Srivastava for
providing us with the best resources in order to
complete this project. My physics teacher
Mrs. Vrushali Panchal and Mrs. Preeti Singh were
a constant source of encouragement and valuable
advices. Without their guidance and support, this
project would not be complete.
I would also like to thank our Lab assistant
Mr. Dinesh Patel who was always there for us to
complete the experiments by giving the best
possible support. He ensured our requirement are
fulfilled to complete this project.
Finally, I am also thankful to my parents for their
continuous moral and financial support in
enabling me to complete this assignment.

Gaurav Thakur
XII D

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 Index

Sr.no Topic Page no.

1. Introduction – Multimeter 4
2. Carbon resistors - Structure 5
3. Uses of carbon resistors 6
4. Colour coding 7
5. Experiment 14
6. Procedure 14
7. Observation 15
8. Conclusion 16
9. Bibliography 17

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 Introduction

Multimeter:
A multimeter or a multitester, also known as VOM (volt- ohm-
milliammeter), is an electronic measuring instrument that combines
several measurements functions in one unit. A typical multimeter
can measure voltage, current and resistance.

Analog multimeters use a microammeter with a moving pointer to

display readings. Digital Multimeters (DMM, DVOM) have a
numerical display, and may also show a graphical bar representing
the measured value.

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 Carbon resistors - Structure
What are Carbon Resistors?
There are many materials used to produce resistance particularly
metals and alloys like nichrome, brass, platinum and tungsten alloys.
However, most of these metals have low electrical resistivity, unlike
carbon resistor, which makes it difficult to produce high resistances
without becoming bulky. We already know that:

Resistance ∝ {Length ×Resistivity}

However, they can produce highly accurate values of resistance and

hence are used usually to calibrate and compare resistances.

For most practical purposes, however, carbon resistors are

preferred. This is because they are cheap to produce, compact and
can be directly printed onto circuit boards. (like the computer
processors in phones and tablets). They also produce resistance fairly
within practical requirements.

Parts of a Carbon Resistor:

Resistors can be constructed out of a variety of materials. The
different parts of a carbon resistor are:

a. Ceramic Core

b. Nickel Cap

c. Lead

d. Carbon Film

e. Protective
Lacquer

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 Uses of Carbon Resistors:
The carbon resistor contains carbon coated onto a ceramic core. A
spiral is etched on the deposited carbon which turns it into a wire
wound on a ceramic core. Depending on the resistance required,
pitch, diameter and length of the carbon spiral vary. Nickel caps are
attached to both ends of the core so as to create a good contact
between the carbon and lead. The leads are soldered onto the nickel
caps and the entire resistor is coated with lacquer for electrical
insulation.

For small resistances required for small currents, the metal caps act
as heat sinks to carry away heat dissipated by the resistor. For larger
current requirements, a metal heat sink is separately attached to
carry away excess heat and to prevent the resistor from burning up.

Carbon resistors are specially colour-coded to identify the resistance.

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 Colour coding in carbon resistors
There are many different types of resistors available which can be
used in both electrical and electronic circuits to control the flow of
current or to produce a voltage drop in many different ways. But in
order to do this, the actual resistor needs to have some “resistive” or
“resistance” value. Resistors are available in a range of different
resistance values from fractions of an Ohm(Ω) to millions of ohms.

Obviously, it would be impractical to have available resistors of every

possible value, for example 1Ω, 2Ω, 3Ω, etc. Instead, resistors are
manufactured in what are called “preferred values” with the
resistance value printed onto their body in coloured ink.

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The resistance value, tolerance, and wattage rating are generally
printed onto the body of the resistor as numbers or letters when the
resistor body is big enough to read the print, such as large power
resistors. But when the resistor is small, these specifications must be
shown in some other manner as the print would be too small to read

So, to overcome this, small resistors use coloured, painted bands to

indicate both their resistive value and their tolerance with the
physical size of the resistor indicating its wattage rating. These
coloured painted bands produce a system of identification generally
known as a Resistors colour code.

An international and universally accepted resistor colour code

scheme was developed many years ago as a simple and quick way of
identifying a resistors ohmic value, no matter what its size or
condition. It consists of a set of individually coloured rings or bands
in spectral order representing each digit of the resistors value.

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The resistor colour code markings are always read one band at a
time starting from left to right, with the larger width tolerance band
oriented to the right side indicating its tolerance. By matching the
colour of the first band with its associated number in the digit
column of the colour chart below the first digit is identified and this
represents the first digit of the resistance value.

Again, by matching the colour of the second band with its associated
number in the digit column of the colour chart we get the second
digit of the resistance value and so on. Then the resistor colour code
is read from left to right as illustrated below:

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Colour Digit Multiplier Tolerance

Black 0 1

Brown 1 10 ±1%

Red 2 100 ±2%

Orange 3 1000

Yellow 4 10,000

Green 5 100,000 ±0.5%

Blue 6 1,000,000 ±0.25%

Violet 7 10,000,000 ±0.1%

Grey 8 ±0.05%

White 9

Gold 0.1 ±5%

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 Silver 0.01 ±10%

none ±20%

Calculating resistor values:

The resistor colour code is all well and good but we need to
understand how to apply it in order to get the correct value of the
resistor. The “left hand” or the most significant coloured band is the
band which is nearest to a connecting lead with the colour coded
bands being read from left to right as follows:

Digit, digit, multiplier = colour, colour × 10 colour (in ohms) (Ω)

Example:

Yellow, violet, red = 472= 47 × 102 = 4700 Ω

The fourth and the fifth bands are used to determine the percentage
tolerance of the resistor. Resistor tolerance is a measure of the
resistor’s variation from the specified resistive value and is a
consequence of the manufacturing process and is expressed as a
percentage of its “nominal” or preferred value.

Typical resistor tolerances for film resistors range from 1% to 10%

while carbon resistors have tolerances up to 20%. Resistors with
tolerances lower than 2% are called precision resistors.

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Most five band resistors are precision resistors with tolerances of
either 1% or 2% while most of the four band resistors have
tolerances of 5%, 10% and 20%. The colour code used to denote the
tolerance rating of a resistor is given as:

Brown = 1%, Red = 2%, Gold = 5%, silver = 10%

If the resistor has no fourth tolerance band then the default

tolerance will be at 20%.

Some more examples:

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 Experiment
Aim:
To compare theoretical and experimental values from multimeter for
resistances in series and parallel.

Apparatus:
multimeter, four carbon resistors, digital multimeter, connecting
wires, positive and negative prongs.

Formula used:
i. Resistance in series
Req = r1 + r2
ii. Resistance in parallel
1/Req = 1/r1 + 1/r2

Procedure:
1. Mark carbon resistors as r1, r2, r3, r4.
2. Note the colour on each ring of the resistor.
3. Find the theoretical values of resistance for each resistor using
colour code table.
4. Plug the probes of the multimeter, select appropriate range and
find experimental values of resistance using multimeter.
5. The above observations are taken as experimental values.
6. Compare experimental values with theoretical values.
7. Find values of r1 and r2 in series and parallel. Similarly, for r3
and r4.

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 Observation
Resistor 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Theoretical Practical
strip strip strip strip (Ω) (Ω)
R1 Brown Black Black Gold 10 ± 5% 10
R2 Orange Orange Black Gold 33 ± 5% 33.4
R3 Brown Red Brown Silver 120 ± 10% 118
R4 Red Red Black Gold 22 ± 5% 22.1

Resistance Theoretical (Ω) Practical (Ω)

combination
R1+R2(series) 43 43.4
R3+R4(series) 144 141
1/R1+1/R2(parallel) 7.6 8
1/R3+1/R4(parallel) 18.59 19.1

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 Conclusion
We find that the difference between experimental and theoretical
values are extremely small and well within the permissible limits.

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 Bibliography:

 www.google.com
 www.bing.com
 www.wikipedia.com
 www.yahoo.com
 www.pinterest.com

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