Experiment (2) Reading Resistance Color Code and Measuring

Resistances
Introduction
In electricity, wires have resistances. The resistance (R) of a wire is
proportional to the length (L) of the wire and inversely proportional to its
cross section area (A). We can thus write:
R

RL

R=

1
A

or R

L
A

L
A

The proportionality constant is called the resistively of the material of the

wire. It depends only on the material. For example, the resistively of steel is
higher than that of copper. Cheap types of wires that we use to bring
electricity from the generator to our homes have higher resistively than good
types that are more expensive. The resistance of the wire causes the voltage
that we get at home being less than that produced by the generator.

The Carbon Resistances

In electronic circuits, resistances are needed. We can not use wires to make
resistances because that will need very long wires. Instead, we can use
materials that have high resistively. One good type of materials consists of a
ceramic material made of a mixture of Carbon and Clay. Changing the ratio
of the carbon and the clay allows us to make resistances of any required
value. These are called carbon resistances.

The color code

The values of resistances are not written on them. Instead, there are four or
five bands of colors on each resistance. These give us the value of the
resistance as in figure (1). This is called the color code

Figure (1) A carbon resistance

Reading the Color Code

Each color band on the resistance represents a digit number as follows

1. The first color from the left is the first number from the left
2. The second color from the left is the second number from the left
3. The third color from the left is the number of zeros in front of the first
two numbers.
4. The forth color is usually either silver or gold color. It represents the
percentage error on the resistance as follows:

BROWN: 1%
RED:
2%
GOLD:
5%
SILVER: 10%
NOTHING: 20%

Example: The resistance in figure (1) has the colors of Blue Red Black.
This gives 6 2 0 so the value of the resistance is 62 ohm (because no
zeros) . The fourth color is gold so the error is 5%. This means that this
resistance can be 62 62

5
62 3 so this resistance can be between 59
100

and 65 ohm

Experiment
1. You have five resistances of different values. Read the color code for
the first resistance and find the resistance value and the error
2. Use the AVO meter (multimeters) to measure the value of the
resistance by setting the switch of the AVO meter to resistance range
3. Repeat steps (1) and (2) for the other four resistances
4. Put your results in the table below and see if the measured value is
within the error range
First
Color
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5

Second
Color

Third
Color

Fourth
Color
(error)

Resistance Measured
Value
Value
error