Resistance activity

Resistors

To read the resistance using the colour code you need to note that there are three (or four) stripes close together and then a last one slightly separated from the others. This last one is the tolerance for the resister. This means how accurate the actual resistance is from the specified amount. The resistance is determined by using the table to identify the colour band and its represented amount. In the resistor immediately below the first two bands are the digits on the value ie 47. The third stripe indicates the factor of ten to multiply. Here it is three so the value of resistance is:

47 x 103 Ω with a tolerance of 2%

The five band resistor color code is more likely to be associated with the more precision 1% and 2% types. Your "garden variety" 5% general purpose types will be four band resistance codes.

Choose three different resistors

Use the colour code to determine the resistances of the resistors. Take a note of the tolerance and determine what the max and min resistance it could be to fall within the stated tolerance.

Quickly sketch and label the multi-meter provided.

Use the multi-meter to measure the resistances of the resistors provided. Do their values fall within the tolerances stated?