Experiments With Resistors

Measuring Resistors
The Resistor Color Code
A Simple Resistor Experiment
Measuring Resistor Accuracy
Resistor Combinations
Series Resistors
Parallel Resistors
• Measuring Resistances

• Let's start by making one resistance

measurement.

• Get a resistor. A one k-ohm resistor

would be good. You can tell it is a one
k-ohm resistor by the stripes. They
should be brown-black-red in that order
from the end, as shown at the right.
• You are now ready to measure the
resistance. Connect your resistor to an
ohmmeter as shown in figure. Don't care
about the lead on which end of the
resistor. It doesn't latter. (The resistor is  a
bilateral element and should be the same
either way), here are the connections you
make. 
• The Resistor Color Code

• You probably wondered about those

stripes on the resistor. There is a color
code that lets you tell what value the
resistor has. Here's what's important.

• This resistor is 1000 ohms = 10x102

 0 Black Black
1 Brown Brown
2 Red Red
3 Orange Orange
4 Yellow Yellow
5 Green Green
6 Blue Blue
7 Violet Violet
8 Gray Gray
9 White White
± 10% Silver Silver
± 5% Gold Gold
± 20% Black Black
 Tolerance band
• The tolerance band is typically either gold or
silver. A gold tolerance band indicates that the
measured value will be within 5% of the nominal
value. A silver band indicates 10% tolerance.
For example a resistor with color code brown-
black-red-silver indicates a nominal value of 1k.
• The first two bands (brown-black) produce the
mantissa (10) and the third band (red) is the
exponent of ten (x10). Since the tolerance band
is silver, we can expect the measured value of
the resistor to be between (900 and 1100)ohm .
To calculate the value of the
resistance you use the three
stripes. (If there are four stripes,
just use the first three.  The last
stripe tells you how accurate the
resistance value is). Here is the
algorithm.
 Algorithm
• The first stripe is the most significant digit,
X, in XY x 10N

• The second stripe is the next digit,

Y, in XY x 10N

• The third stripe is the exponent in

XY x 10N

Where N represents the Code of the color

 A Simple Resistor
• Any conducting material can be used
to make a resistor. Any metal or
metallic alloy can be used. Other
conducting materials, like carbon,
germanium or silicon can be used,
even if the material does not conduct
as well as a metal. In this exercise
you are going to construct some
resistors made of carbon.
The carbon you will use is the
carbon found in a pencil lead. On a
clean sheet of paper draw a shape
like the one below. It can be
smaller but drawn to scale.  You
have just constructed and
measured a resistor. There is a
special symbol for a resistor that
you need to become familiar
with. Here it is.
• The diagonal lines are intended to
suggest some resistance to the flow
of current. This symbol can be used
in any orientation, and you will often
see this symbol rotated as shown at
the right.
When you measured your resistor the
ohmmeter that you used actually
applied a small voltage across your
resistor and current flowed through
it. Often symbols are attached to the
resistor symbol to indicate how the
voltage is applied across the resistor
and to define a positive direction for
current flow. In a case where both a
current and a voltage symbol were
used the situation would look like what
we have shown above. 
• The second resistor should be the same
physical size as the original resistor.  Since it is
the same size and made of the same material it
should have the same resistance. There are
physical reasons why that is so, and there is a
mathematical expression that relates the
resistance to length, cross sectional area and a
property of the material called resistivity. 
• For resistors that have a constant cross section,
A, and a length, L, the resistance is:
R = rL/A
Now that you have the two same
resistors to measure, go ahead and
measure the series combination.
When you have that measurement
taken and you think you are close
enough to the correct measured
value you can go on.