The Best DIY STEM Tutorials and Projects
OVERVIEW
It’s time to look at the third term that enters the picture whenever we talk about electronic circuits: Resistance
By the end of this level, you’ll have a better understanding of what voltage, current, and resistance are, how they relate to each other, and how they can be used in electronic circuits. So let’s get started on this exciting journey into the world of electronics!
Resistance
A resistor is a tiny electronic component that slows down the flow of electric current in a circuit. Think of it like a speed bump that slows down cars on a road. Resistors come in different shapes, sizes and colors.
Imagine a pipe that carries water from one place to another. Now imagine placing a small, narrow section in the middle of the pipe. This would slow down the flow of water, just like a resistor slows down the flow of electricity.
Since the wires are made of conducting material, their resistance is negligible. Therefore, we need an external resistance to control the current flowing inside the wire. We can introduce this resistance by connecting external physical objects in the circuit. They are known as resistors.
Resistors are used in electronic circuits to control the flow of current and voltage. They can be used to protect other components from getting too much electricity or to adjust the brightness of a light bulb, for example.
The Guy with a hat is a resistor. A resistor is like a traffic cop for electricity – it helps control how much electricity flows through a circuit. Just like how a traffic cop helps make sure cars don’t go too fast and cause accidents, a resistor makes sure that the electricity flowing through a circuit doesn’t get too strong and damage the things in the circuit. It’s like a safety feature that helps keep our electronic devices working properly!
Resistors come in many different shapes and sizes
most common ones are Carbon resistors and its also provided in your STEM Kit
but how do we find the value of our resistors???
Here is an example that shows how the table and resistor shown above can be used to figure out a resistor value by proving that yellow-violet-brown is really 470 Ω:
- The first stripe is yellow, which means the leftmost digit is a 4.
- The second stripe is violet, which means the next digit is a 7.
- The third stripe is brown. Since brown is 1, it means adding one zero to the right of the first two digits.
Yellow-Violet-Brown = 4-7-0 = 470 Ω.
Great Work, Now finds Resistance of the resistors provided in your Kit, and share their values with us in the comments below!
101 amps