In this lecture, we will learn about resistors and resistor

networks, and how to simply them.

1
A resistor is characterised by a number of parameters:
1.  Its nominal value;
2.  Its tolerance or accuracy (e.g. ±5%);
3.  Its power rating (i.e. maximum power that it can dissipate);
4.  Its temperature coefficient (how much the resistance vary with
temperature);
5.  Its stability (i.e. how much it changes over time);
6.  Its self inductance (something we don’t worry about unless you are using
resistors at very very high frequencies).
These characteristics are often shown on the resistor itself as a colour code.
The colour code is as shown above. (The printed notes are not in colour. You
can download the PDF file from the course webpage, which will be shown in
full glorious colours.)
Consider the top resistor. It has four bands, and the band colours are:
RED, GREEN, ORANGE, a gap, BROWN
The first two colour bands are the first two digits of the resistance, i.e. RED =
2, GREEN = 5. The third band in this case is the multiplier. ORANGE = 103 or
1k. The gap is always there to separate value bands from tolerance band.
BROWN =±5%.

2
Since resistors have tolerances, it is not necessary normal even sensible to
provide resistors of ALL values. Let us suppose you have a 1kΩ resistor with
a tolerance of 10%. This resistor could vary from 900Ω to 1.1kΩ in value. You
want to guarantee that another resistor with lower nominal value is always
lower in resistance. Therefore it does not make sense to provide any
resistance with a value above 820Ω, say 850Ω. This is because 850Ω at 10%
would give you a range of 765Ω to 935Ω, which would be higher than the
lowest value of the 1k resistor!
Therefore in industry, only selected values (known as Preferred Values) of
resistors are made, dependent on the tolerance. Shown here are the ±20%,
±10% and ±5% resistors values in a decade range. They are called E6, E12
and E24 respectively because there are 6, 12 and 24 values in each decade
(similar to musical nodes).
GOOD ENGINNERING PRACTICE: you can see that since in engineering
design, we always have to consider tolerance, and even the humble resistor
only exists in defined values, it does not make sense to use precision in your
solutions having many digits.
In our laboratory, we will be mostly using the E24 series of resistors at ±5%
tolerance.

3
Here are the common quantities used in electrical engineering, their units
and symbolic representations for the units.
Furthermore, we do not generally use all decades for multipliers (say of
resistors), but the multipliers are in steps of THREE decade.

4
Circuits can be simplified by combining components. In the top circuit,
resisters R1, R2 and R3 are connected in series. It can be replaced by ONE
resistor RT = R1 + R2 + R3. with series resistors, the SAME CURRENT flows
through all of them.
Note that in this circuit, R3 and R4 are NOT in series because they may not
have the same current.
Resistors can be connected in parallel. R1, R2 and R3 share the same two
nodes, and therefore they have the SAME VOLTAGE across them. R4 and R5
are also in parallel, but only to each other.

5
Series connected resistors have the same current through them. Since V = IR
(Ohm’s law), the resistors DIVIDE the voltage in the same ratio as the
resistances. Consider the voltage V1, the simple mathematics shown here
shows that V1 / Vx = the ratio of R1 to the total resistance RT. Therefore Vx
is divided into V1:V2:V3, by R1:R2:R3. The higher the resistance Rx, the
higher the voltage across it. This is called a voltage divider.

It is very common to use TWO resistors show in the lower diagram to
produce a smaller voltage VY by dividing VX as shown. If the output current
IY is zero (therefore no load connect to VY), then the voltage divider is exact.
If IY is not zero, as long as IY is much smaller the I, the current through the
series resistor divider circuit, the voltage divider equation is an
approximation.

6
While series connected resistors divide a voltage, parallel connected resistors
divide current. The current IX is divided amount the three resistors R1, R2
and R3 in the ratio of their CONDUCTANCE (i.e. 1/resistance). The higher the
conductance, the higher the current through that resistor.
Note that series connected resistors have a total resistance = sum of all
resistances that are in series. Similar for parallel resistors, total conductance
= sum of all conductances that are in parallel.

7
We can replace series connected resistors with an equivalent resistance to
simplify the circuit. The top circuit has three resistors R1, R2 and R3. This can
be replaced by one resistor with RT = sum of all three resistances. The V-I
relationship for the two versions of the circuit are identical. However, the
individual voltages V1, V2 and V3 across each of the resistors are no longer
accessible.
The circuit at the top right of slide 5 can therefore be simplified to the one
shown here.

8
Similarly we can perform the same simplification with parallel connected
resistors. In the circuit shown below, R1, R2 and R2 are combined to RP. We
can further combine R4 and R5 because they too are connected in parallel.

9
We often write parallel connected resistors using the double vertical bar
symbol. For the special case of TWO parallel resistors, the equivalent
resistance is R1*R2/(R1+R2), or product divided by the sum. This formulae is
well worth memorizing – you will use this equation often.
Always remember: if you have a resistor R1, and then connect a resistor R2 in
parallel with R1, the equivalent resistance is ALWAYS SMALLER than both R1
and R2.
In other words, adding a resistor in series to an existing resistor will
INCREASE the total resistance; adding a resistor in parallel to an existing
resistor will REDUCE the total resistance.

10
Here are a few examples of simplifying resistor networks.

11
Here is another example of a voltage divider. It divides the 9V battery
voltage source into two parts: lower voltage V2 = 6V, and the upper voltage
V1 = 3V.

Not that in this case, the diagram also shows the power dissipated by each
resistors. As can be seen, the power dissipated by these two resistors are
much lower than rated value of 250mW (the same type of resistors that you
will be using in the Home Lab Kit).

Also remember: if you keep resistors in kW, current in mA, voltage in V, then
everything works out fine with Ohm’s Law. In this case, I x R = 3 x 2 = 6V.

12
In Topic 2, we considered idea voltage DC (direct current) sources such as
that found in an ideal battery. The I-V characteristic is a vertical line because
no matter what current you draw from the battery, the voltage remains
constant.
In practice, this does not happen. In a real battery, if you increase the
current you draw from it, the battery voltage decreases. This is the same as
having a resistor RB in series with an ideal voltage source. The I-V plot now is
a line with a slight positive slope. As you draws more current from the
battery, the current is increasingly negative (because current is flowing OUT
of the battery and is in the opposite direction of the arrow shown here), the
voltage V decreases. RB is often called internal resistance of the battery.
As temperature drops, RB increases. That’s why we that cars are harder to
start in the winter because the car battery has increased internal resistance.

13
14