300-In-1 Electronic Project Lab
(280-0270)                 Using Resistors            Faxback Doc. # 19469

Use the following chart and explanation to learn a color band's value and
how to use it.

Black      = 0    Green   =    5
Brown      = 1    Blue    =    6
Red        = 2    Violet  =    7
Orange     = 3    Gray    =    8
Yellow     = 4    White   =    9

There are two types of resistors - a four-band and a five-band.

Find one of the four-band resistors.  Hold the resistor with gold band to
the right.  The first two bands from the left show the value.  If they are
red and red, the value is 22.  The third band shows the number of zeros
after the value.  If it is yellow, then the number of zeros is 4.  So the
resistor is 220,000 ohms.  To shorten the value name, we use the k-symbol
to equal 1,000: so, 220,000 ohms equals 220k ohms.  Try figure out the
value of the resistors with following color bands:

1.  orange-yellow-red

2.  yellow-violet-yellow

3.  red-violet-brown

4.  brown-black-green

The answer is:

1.  3,400 ohm or 3.4k ohm

2.  470,000 ohm or 470k ohm

3.  270 ohm

4.  1,000,000 ohm (we use another unit for million - capital letter

    M for Mega.  So this is 1M ohm.)

The gold band indicates that the resistors are of 5% tolerance.  The
resistors might have slightly different resistance from the value shown,
within 5%.

Now find the resistors with five bands.  They have a red band at an end
and more space separates this band from the other four bands than there is
between the four bands.  This red band means these resistors are of 2%
tolerance.  Hold one of these resistors with red band for tolerance to the
right.  With these resistors, the three bands from left show the value and
the fourth band (the closest one to the tolerance band) shows the number
of zeros.

For example, one of the resistors is red-brown-grey-brown.

The first three bands represent the value, so it is 218.  We need to add
one zero (brown is 1), so the actual value is 2,180 ohm, or 2.18k ohm.  To
easily remember where to place the decimal point, you simply replace the
comma with the decimal point.


(br/ir-04/02/96)