Scribd
Upload
26 views

LESSON 2 Resistor

This document provides an overview of resistors, including: - Resistors oppose the flow of electric current and their resistance is measured in ohms. - The resistor color code uses colored bands to indicate a resistor's resistance value and tolerance. - Ohm's law states the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance in a circuit. The resistance of a component can be calculated by measuring the voltage and current.

Uploaded by

Dar N. Agasang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
26 views

LESSON 2 Resistor

This document provides an overview of resistors, including: - Resistors oppose the flow of electric current and their resistance is measured in ohms. - The resistor color code uses colored bands to indicate a resistor's resistance value and tolerance. - Ohm's law states the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance in a circuit. The resistance of a component can be calculated by measuring the voltage and current.

Uploaded by

Dar N. Agasang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

LESSON 2  

-  RESISTORS

Electrons move more easily through some materials than others when a voltage is applied.
In metals the electrons are held so loosely that they move almost without any hindrance.
We measure how much opposition there is to an electric current as resistance.

Resistors come somewhere between conductors, which conduct easily, and insulators, which
don't conduct at all. Resistance is measured in ohms after the discoverer of a law relating
voltage to current. Ohms are represented by the Greek letter omega.

Think back to the model of water flowing in a pipe. The thickness of the pipe must represent
the resistance. The narrower the pipe the harder it is for the water to get through and hence
the greater the resistance. For a particular pump the time taken to fill the pond is directly
related to the pipe thickness. Make the pipe twice the size and the flow rate doubles, and
the pond fills in half the time.

The resistors used in the MadLab kits are made of a thin film of carbon deposited on a
ceramic rod. The less carbon the higher the resistance. They are then given a tough outer
coating and some coloured bands are painted on.

The main function of resistors in a circuit is to control the flow of current to other
components. Take an LED (light) for example. If too much current flows through an LED it is
destroyed. So a resistor is used to limit the current.

When a current flows through a resistor energy is wasted and the resistor heats up. The
greater the resistance the hotter it gets. The battery has to do work to force the electrons
through the resistor and this work ends up as heat energy in the resistor.

An important property to know about a resistor is how much heat energy it can withstand
before it's damaged. MadLab resistors can dissipate about a 1/4 Watt of heat (compare this
with a domestic kettle which uses up to 3 000 Watts to boil water).

It's difficult to make a resistor to an exact value (and in most circuits it is not critical
anyway). Resistances are given with a certain accuracy or tolerance. This is expressed as
being plus or minus so much of a percentage. A 10% resistor with a stated value of 100
ohms could have a resistance anywhere between 90 ohms and 110 ohms. The MadLab
resistors are 5% (that's what the gold band means) which is more than enough accuracy.

Real resistances vary over an enormous range. In the Lie Detector there is a 1 000 000
ohms resistor alongside a 470 ohms resistor. In circuit diagrams you will often see an 'R'
instead of omega to represent ohms. This is a convention that dates from before the days of
computers and laser printers when Greek letters were rarely found on typewriters. The
letter 'k' means a thousand and its position shows the position of the decimal point.

Here are some examples:

10R = 10 ohms
10k = 10 kilohms = 10 000 ohms
4k7 = 4.7 kilohms = 4 700 ohms

Ohm's Law
Ohm's Law is actually very simple. It says that the more voltage applied to a resistor the
more current flows through it. If the voltage is doubled then the current doubles, if the
voltage is trebled then the current trebles, and so on. There is always a constant ratio
between the voltage and current for a particular resistor. This value is the resistance
measured in ohms.

To work out the resistance of something, simply measure the voltage across it and the
current through it. Divide the first figure by the second and you have the resistance.

If you know the resistance and the voltage you can work out the current. Or if you know the
resistance and the current you can work out the voltage. That makes Ohm's Law very
useful.

Resistor Colour Code

The resistor colour code is a way of showing the value of a resistor. Instead of writing the
resistance on its body, which would often be too small to read, a colour code is used. Ten
different colours represent the numbers 0 to 9. The first two coloured bands on the body are
the first two digits of the resistance, and the third band is the 'multiplier'. Multiplier just
means the number of zeroes to add after the first two digits. Red represents the number 2,
so a resistor with red, red, red bands has a resistance of 2 followed by 2 followed by 2
zeroes, which is 2 200 ohms or 2.2 kilohms.

The final band is the tolerance (the accuracy). All the MadLab resistors are 5% which is
shown by a gold band.

Here is the complete list of colours:

1st band 2nd band 3rd band


Black 0 0 x 1
Brown 1 1 x 10
Red 2 2 x 100
Orange 3 3 x 1000
Yellow 4 4 x 10000
Green 5 5 x 100000
Blue 6 6 x 1000000
Purple 7 7
Grey 8 8
White 9 9

Here are some examples:

Yellow, purple, red, gold = 47 x 100 = 4 700 ohms = 4.7 kilohms


Yellow, purple, black, gold = 47 x 1 = 47 ohms
Brown, black, red, gold = 10 x 100 = 1 000 ohms = 1 kilohms
Brown, black, green, gold = 10 x 100 000 = 1 000 kilohms = 1 Megohms
All +/- 5%

Variable Resistors

Unsurprisingly, variable resistors are resistors whose resistance can be varied. The MadLab
variable resistors (called presets) have a metal wiper resting on a circular track of carbon.
The wiper moves along the track as the preset is turned. The current flows through the
wiper and then through part of the carbon track. The more of the track it has to go through
the greater the resistance.

MadLab presets have three legs. The top leg connects to the wiper and the other two legs to
the two ends of the track. Generally only one of the track legs is actually used.

Variable resistors are used in circuits to vary things that need changing, like volume etc.

You might also like