Resistance is

Opposition to
Current
Lesson 5

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 The fact that a wire
conducting current can become
hot is evidence of fact that the
work done by the applied
voltage in producing current
must be accomplished against
some form of opposition.

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 RESISTANCE

The opposition which limits the amount

of current that can be produced by the
applied voltage, is called resistance.

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Conductors have very little resistance.

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 Insulators have a very large amount of
resistance.

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 The atoms of a copper wire have a large number of
free electrons, which can be moved easily by a potential
difference. Therefore, the copper wire has little
opposition to the flow of free electrons when voltage is
applied, corresponding to a low value of resistance.

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Copper Carbon
 Carbon has fewer free electrons than copper.
When the same amount of voltage is applied to the
copper, fewer electrons will flow.

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Copper Carbon
 It should be noted that just as much current can
be produced in the carbon by applying more voltage.
For the same current, though, the higher applied
voltage means that more work is necessary, causing
more heat. Carbon opposes the current more than
copper, therefore, and has a higher value of resistance.

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 The Ohm

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 The practical unit of resistance is the ohm. A
resistance that develops 0.24 calorie of heat when one
ampere of current flows through it for one second has
one ohm of opposition..

Unit of
Resistance Ω

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 As an example of a low resistance, a good
conductor like copper wire can have a resistance of
0.01Ω for a 1-ft length. The resistance-wire heating
element in a 600-W 120-V toaster has a resistance of
24Ω, and a tungsten filament in a 100-W 120-V light
bulb has a resistance of 144Ω.

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 The ohm unit is named after Georg Simon Ohm
(1747-1854), a German Physicist.

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 BANCOROTLE102020
Georg Simon Ohm (1747-1854)
 A wire-wound resistor. Resistors also made with powered
carbon. They can be manufactured with a value from a few
ohms to millions of ohms.

(a) (b)

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(a) Wire-wound of resistor with cement coating for
insulation. (b) Schematic symbol for any type of fixed resistor.
 They symbol for resistance is R. The abbreviation
used for the ohm unit is the Greek letter omega,
written as Ω.

Ω
Unit of Resistance

Symbol of Resistance
R

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 Conductance

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 CONDUCTANCE

The opposite of resistance is

conductance. The lower the resistance the
higher the inductance.

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 The symbol for conductance is G, and the unit is
the siemens (S), named after Ernst von Siemens, a
European investor. (The old unit name for conductance is mho,
which is ohm spelled backward)

S (siemens)
Unit of Conductance

Symbol of Conductance
G

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Formula

1
𝐺=
𝑅

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G is the reciprocal of R.
Example

1 5 Ω of resistance
𝐺= 1
5 is equal to or 0.2 S
5
of conductance.
𝐺 = 0.2 𝑆

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 Whether to use R or G for components is usually
a matter of convenience. In general, R is easier to use
in series circuit, because the series voltages are
proportional to the resistance. However, G can be more
convenient in parallel circuits, because the parallel
currents are proportional to the conductance.

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Reference:

Bernard Grob, et.al.,Grob Basic Electronics

7th Edition. McGraw-Hill Book Company: 1993.

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