Electrical Circuits 1

Dr. Magdy A. Abdelhay

Pyramids Higher Institute for Engineering and Technology

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Chapter 2
Resistance

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Resistance: Circular Wires

The resistance of any material is due primarily to four factors:

1 Material
2 Length
3 Cross-sectional area
4 Temperature of the material
The atomic structure determines how easily a free electron will pass
through a material.
The longer the path through which the free electron must pass, the
greater the resistance factor.
Free electrons pass more easily through conductors with larger
cross-sectional areas.
In addition, the higher the temperature of the conductive materials,
the greater the internal vibration and motion of the components that
make up the atomic structure of the wire, and the more difficult it is
for the free electrons to find a path through the material.

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Resistance: Circular Wires

The first three elements are related by the following basic equation for
resistance:
l
R=ρ
A
ρ = CM − Ω/ft at T = 20◦ C, l =feet, and A = area in circular mils
(CM).

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Resistance: Circular Wires
The material is identified by a factor called the resistivity, which uses
the Greek letter rho (ρ) as its symbol and is measured in CM − Ω/ft.
Its value at a temperature of 20◦ C (room temperature = 68◦ F) is
provided in the table below.

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Resistance: Circular Wires

The higher the resistivity, the greater the resistance of a conductor.

The longer the conductor, the greater the resistance.
the greater the area of a conductor, the less the resistance.

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Circular Mils (CM)
In The resistance, the area is measured in a quantity called circular
mils (CM).
It is the quantity used in most commercial wire tables, and thus it
needs to be carefully defined.
he mil is a unit of measurement for length and is related to the inch
by
1
1 mil = in.
1000
or
1000 mils = 1 in.
By definition, a wire with a diameter of 1 mil has an area of 1 CM.

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Circular Mils (CM)

An interesting result of such a definition is that the area of a circular

wire in circular mils can be defined by the following equation:

ACM = (dmils )2

Remember, to compute the area of a wire in circular mils when the

diameter is given in inches, first convert the diameter to mils by
simply writing the diameter in decimal form and moving the decimal
point three places to the right. For example,

Then the area is determined by

ACM = (dmils )2 = (125 mils)2 = 15, 625 CM

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Circular Mils (CM)

Sometimes when you are working with conductors that are not
circular, you will need to convert square mils to circular mils, and vice
versa.
Applying the basic equation for the area of a circle and substituting a
diameter of 1 mil results in

from which we can conclude the following:

π
1 CM = sq mils
4
or
4
1 sq mils = CM
π

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Example 1

Example 1: What is the resistance of a 100 ft length of copper wire with

a diameter of 0.020 in. at 20°C?

Solution:
CM-Ω
ρ = 10.37 0.020 in. = 20 mils
ft
ACM = (dmils )2 = (20 mils)2 = 400 CM
l (10.37 CM-Ω/f t)(100 ft)
R=ρ = = 2.59 Ω
A 400 CM

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Example 2
Example 2: An undetermined number of feet of wire have been used
from the carton in the figure below. Find the length of the remaining
copper wire if it has a diameter of 1/16 in. and a resistance of 0.5Ω.

Solution:
1
ρ = 10.37 CM-Ω/f t in. = 0.0625 in. = 62.5 mils
16
ACM = (dmils )2 = (62.5 mils)2 = 3906.25 CM
l RA (0.5Ω)(3906.25 CM) 1953.125
R=ρ ⇒l= = = = 188.34 ft
A ρ CM-Ω 10.37
10.37
ft
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Example 3
Example 3: What is the resistance of a copper bus-bar, as used in the
power distribution panel of a high-rise office building, with the dimensions
indicated in the figure below?

Solution:

l (10.37 CM-Ω/ft)(3 ft) 31.11 −6

R=ρ = = = 9.774 × 10 Ω
A 3.183 × 106 CM 3.183 × 106
(quite small 0.000009774 Ω ∼= 0 Ω)
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Resistance: Metric Units

Basic equation for resistance:

l
R=ρ
A

The units for ρ can be derived from

RA Ω-cm2
ρ= = = Ω-cm
l cm

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Resistance: Metric Units

Table below provides a list of values of ρ in ohm-centimeters.
Note that the area now is expressed in square centimeters, which can
be determined using the basic equation A = πd2 /4, eliminating the
need to work with circular mils, the special unit of measure associated
with circular wires.

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Example 4

Example 4: Determine the resistance of 100 ft of a copper telephone

wire if the diameter is 0.0126 in.
Solution: Unit conversions:
  
12 in 2.54 cm
l = 100 
ft = 3048 cm
1 ft 1in.

 
2.54 cm
d = 0.0126 in. = 0.032 cm
1 in.

Therefore,

πd2 (3.1416)(0.032 cm)2

A= = = 8.04 × 10−4 cm2
4 4
l (1.723 × 10−6 Ω-cm)(3048 cm) ∼
R=ρ = = 6.5 Ω
A 8.04 × 10−4 cm2

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Example 5
Example 5: Determine the resistance of the thin-film resistor in the
figure below if the sheet resistance Rs (defined by Rs = ρ/d) is 100 Ω.

Solution: For deposited materials of the same thickness, the sheet

resistance factor is usually employed in the design of thin-film resistors.
l l ρ  l  l
R=ρ =ρ = = Rs
A dw d w w
where l is the length of the sample and w is the width. Substituting into
the above equation yields
l (100 Ω)(0.6 cm)
R = Rs = = 200 Ω
w 0.3 cm
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Temperature Effects
Conductors
Conductors have a generous number of free electrons, and any
introduction of thermal energy will have little impact on the total
number of free carriers.
In fact, the thermal energy only increases the intensity of the random
motion of the particles within the material and makes it increasingly
difficult for a general drift of electrons in any one direction to be
established.
for good conductors, an increase in temperature results in an increase
in the resistance level. Consequently, conductors have a positive
temperature coefficient.

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Temperature Effects

Semiconductors
In semiconductors, an increase in temperature imparts a measure of
thermal energy to the system that results in an increase in the
number of free carriers in the material for conduction.
for semiconductor materials, an increase in temperature results in a
decrease in the resistance level.
Consequently, semiconductors have negative temperature coefficients.
Insulators
As with semiconductors, an increase in temperature results in a
decrease in the resistance of an insulator.
The result is a negative temperature coefficient.

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Temperature Effects
Figure below reveals that for copper (and most other metallic
conductors), the resistance increases almost linearly (in a straight-line
relationship) with an increase in temperature.
Using a property of similar triangles,
x y
=
R1 R2
or
234.5 + T1 234.5 + T2
=
R1 R2

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Temperature Effects
The temperature of -234.5°C is called the inferred absolute
temperature of copper.
For different conducting materials, the intersection of the straight-line
approximation occurs at different temperatures.
A few typical values are listed in the table below.

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Temperature Effects

The equation can easily be adapted to any material by inserting the

proper inferred absolute temperature.
It may therefore be written as follows:

|Ti |+T1 |Ti |+T2

=
R1 R2
where |Ti | indicates that the inferred absolute temperature of the
material involved is inserted as a positive value in the equation.
In general, therefore, associate the sign only with T1 and T2 .

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Example 6

Example 6: If the resistance of a copper wire is 50 Ω at 20°C, what is its

resistance at 100°C (boiling point of water)?

Solution:
234.5◦ C + 10◦ C 234.5◦ C + 100◦ C
=
50 Ω R2
(50 Ω)(194.5◦ C)
R2 = = 65.72 Ω
254.5◦ C

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Example 7

Example 7: If the resistance of a copper wire at freezing (0°C) is 30 Ω,

what is its resistance at -40°C?

Solution:
234.5◦ C + 0 234.5◦ C − 40◦ C
=
30 Ω R2
(30 Ω)(194.5◦ C)
R2 = = 24.88 Ω
234.5◦ C

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Example 8

Example 8: If the resistance of an aluminum wire at room temperature

(20°C) is 100 mΩ (measured by a milliohmmeter), at what temperature
will its resistance increase to 120 mΩ?

Solution:
236◦ C + 20◦ C 236◦ C + T2
=
100 mΩ 120 mΩ
and
256◦ C
 
T2 = 120 mΩ − 236◦ C = 71.2◦ C
100 mΩ

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Conductance

By finding the reciprocal of the resistance of a material, we have a

measure of how well the material conducts electricity.
The quantity is called conductance, has the symbol G, and is
measured in siemens (S).
In equation form, conductance is

1
G=
R

In equation form, the conductance is determined by

A
G= (S)
ρl

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Example 9
Example 9:
1 Determine the conductance of a 1 Ω, 50 kΩ, and 10 MΩ resistor.
2 How does the conductance level change with increase in resistance?
Solution:
1

1 1
1Ω:G= = =1S
R 1Ω
1 1 1
50 kΩ : G = = = 3
= 0.02 × 10−3 S = 0.02 mS
R 50 kΩ 50 × 10 Ω
1 1 1
10 MΩ : G = = = 6
= 0.1 × 10−6 S = 0.02 µS
R 10 MΩ 10 × 10 Ω

2 The conductance level decreases rapidly with significant increase in

resistance levels.
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Example 10

Example 10: What is the relative increase or decrease in conductivity of

a conductor if the area is reduced by 30% and the length is increased by
40%? The resistivity is fixed.

Solution:
1 1 Ai
Gi = = =
Ri ρi li ρi li
Ai
with the subscript i for the initial value. Using the subscript n for new
value:
An 0.70Ai 0.70 Ai 0.70Gi
Gn = = = = = 0.5Gi
ρn ln ρi (1.4li ) 1.4 ρi li 1.4

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