Ohm’s Law

As charged particles try to make their way round a circuit they

encounter resistance to their flow eg. they collide with atoms in the
conductor. More resistance means more energy is needed to push
the same number of electrons through part of the circuit.

This resistance is measure in ohms, Ω.

Definition :

“If it takes 1 volt (1 joule per coulomb) to push a current of 1amp

through a resistor, it has a resistance of 1 ohm”

In equation form, that says

The equation summarises Ohm’s law. It suggests that any
value of voltage you put across a resistor divided by
the current it produces in the resistor, will always give
the same value of resistance

Any resistor that does this is called an ohmic resistor. Any

resistor that doesn’t do this is cleverly called a non-ohmic
resistor.
 Diode Filament Thermistor
Lamp

An increase in resistance will show a A thermistor with a negative

reduction in gradient (it becomes less temperature coefficient. A
steep) e.g. the filament lamp. positive temperature
coefficient thermistor increases
Be careful - in some books or questions, resistance with temperature.
the graphs are drawn with V on the y-
axis. In this case, the gradient of the
graph becomes R, not 1/R
 Combinations of resistors - Series

Current used in all 3 will be the same (current doesn’t get used up)
but the energy used per coulomb (i.e. pd) will depend on the value
of the resistance

Cancel the I’s

 Combinations of resistors - Parallel

Here the voltage across all three will be

the same but the current through each
depends on the resistance of each.