Labs: Resistor Color Code

How can you tell what the bands and colors on the resistor mean?  See the Resistor Color Code  or a slightly more graphical version Links to an external site..  Also available in your Ulaby textbook.

Resistors, capacitors, and inductors only come in standard values, shown HERE.  If you want anything other than that, you will have to combine resistors, or use a potentiometer (variable resistor).

There are several engineering apps for your cell phone.  Google 'resistor color code app'.

What if you are color blind? Just measure the resistance with your DVM if you can't see it outright.  Some of the more complicated electrical systems (commercial construction, for instance) will have many different colors of wires, which can be difficult for some types of color vision anomalies to distinguish. Before you work hands on with any of these types of systems, it is probably a good idea to have your color vision checked, so that you can have someone else be your color eyes if needed.