POWER OF TEN BAND HOW TO

For example an orange third band with a digit value of 3 would indicate a multiplier of 10 3, though you can also just think of this as telling you to “stick 3 zeros on the end'. The color of the band determines the power of 10 you need to multiply the first two resistor digits by. If you want to go deeper into the math, this third band is officially referred to as a multiplier. In the example above, the third stripe is brown, indicating that a single zero should be added to the right of the first two digits. To get around this, the third band indicates that a certain number of zeros should be added after the first two digits to make up the full resistor value. Resistor values can get to be very high in number, and there often isn't enough space to use a band for every digit. Since brown is 1, it means add one zero to the right of the first two digits.Īlthough the first two bands are fairly straightforward, the third and fourth bands might require a bit more explanation. The second stripe is violet, which means the next digit is a 7.

The first stripe is yellow, which means the leftmost digit is a 4.

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 order in which the colors are arranged is very important, and each value of resistor has its own unique combination.

POWER OF TEN BAND HOW TO

The colored bands on a resistor can tell you everything you need to know about its value and tolerance, as long as you understand how to read them. This value's unit is the ohm, often noted with the Greek letter omega: Ω. Each one has a value that tells how strongly it resists current flow. Resistors resist the flow of electrical current.

Power of ten band